Gossip Girl: Je suis votre Confidente
by Acrobat Dances a Playful Tune
Summary: Whether your a blushing bride-to-be, a playboy behind bars or a cute couple falling madly in love the rules of the game don't change, just because it's Fall I'm not turning over a new leaf, watch out Upper East Siders xoxo Gossip Girl.
1. Chapter 1

**Gossip Girl**

. . .

_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

. . .

_THROW AWAY THE KEY? _

_Hey Upper East Siders my spies on the streets have given me so much gossip that I'm just dying to share with you. If any of you were excited about a certain blossoming romance then sorry to break the bad news but looks as if the Royal Romance has soured, why else are __**B**__ and__** Louis**__ half way around the world from one another? And as for __**Bass **__he's behind bars awaiting trial for conspiracy to commit blackmail while his accomplice __**E**__ is out on bail – looks as if when Lily let her chicks out of the nest she didn't realize they'd become jailbirds. And where are __**S & N**__ in their friends time of need? They've taken up S & M – you read that right Upper East Siders, smooching on the Champs Elysees and making love at the Louvre – while B's marital bliss breaks down and Chuck's behind bars their BFFs are in Paris enjoying a gorgeous getaway before school starts – then again since when were those two ever reliable friends in the first place?_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

. . .

"Dorota," Blair yelled at the top of her lungs, "where is my Salmon? I told you I was craving salmon!" Blair stormed back through to her bedroom and dramatically flopped onto her bed, letting out a long, exasperated sigh – she might only be four months pregnant but as mother wasn't she entitled to take things easy? All Dorota had to do were the easy tasks – she had gone through pregnancy too, didn't she understand how difficult it was: especially when the father wasn't speaking to you. She paused a few moments and then contemplated installing a drape operated bell system throughout the apartment, whichever room she were in she would pull it and as though she were in a period drama Dorota would appear out of thin air like a phantom in an instant to complete whatever Blair desired. She was drawn out of her daydream by the arrival of Dorota complete with something that did not resemble salmon. "What is that?" Blair demanded fiercely.

"Your fillet steak Miss Blair, you ask specifically for fillet beef one hour ago." Dorota replied not a hint of snootiness in her voice though an aspect to it that Blair thought sounded both annoyed and worryingly mildly revolutionary, Dorota wouldn't dare. Would she?

Blair surveyed it, "I said _Salmon_."

"No Miss Blair you think you say Salmon but you say steak, you say you want red meat – I bring you finest cut of red meat in whole of Manhattan," Dorota said gesturing to it enthusiastically as though preparing a steak was such a very difficult task and Blair should be impressed, "Miss Blair you imagine yourself saying Salmon but you do not – only yesterday I bring you smoked salmon and eggs for breakfast and you throw up for two hours in bathroom – is like old times." She added darkly to the end, recalling Blair's brief descent into bulimia – an episode she wished to exercise from her memory.

"That was _mourning sickness_," she said emphasizing that there was nothing wrong with her, "besides those eggs were overcooked and chewy."

"This not about pregnancy," Dorota said to herself and then looked Blair in the eye, settling herself at the foot of the bed, "this about Mr Louis and your affair with Chuck."

"I am not," Blair paused to calm herself down, subconsciously reaching to touch her bump and stroke it in case she had upset the baby, she took a deep breath and then continued, "I am not having an affair with Mr Chuck," there was the first lie out of the way, "and I am not worried about my distance from Louis." And the second, sometimes Blair wondered if she actually said anything truthful in the course of the day – she didn't but it was better that way, it was how she had always lived and would go on living.

"Miss Blair you are engaged and you are pregnant," Dorota said wisely as though she had great personal experience of such matters, as though she were an authority on things and Blair had a sinking feeling she was about to get a lecture on the inner workings of Royal Courts, "once you are Queen you may take as many lovers as you like, so long as you give birth to an heir – Mr Chuck is not an acceptable lover for you and you must make a clean break. Mr Louis stay away because he cannot trust you." She grabbed the tray the beef was on and turned and left already deciding that if Blair did not want it, she would have it. Blair watched Dorota go and then allowed her face to frown deeply – if Dorota knew it would hardly be long before everyone else sussed out that something else was amiss between her and Louis: other than the baby.

. . .

_Spotted, __**Lily Van Der Woodsen **__looking stressed and tired in the Meat-Packing District, we're left wondering what's more stressful Lil – the fact that you're son's on bail for blackmail or that your sister doesn't even trust you to meet her real daughter and used a con-artist to dupe you? Well get ready for one more frown-line Lily because Faye12 just spotted __**Carol Rhodes**__ stepping off a flight from Miami. _

. . .

She had spent most of the last few weeks pacing, pacing and drinking copious amounts of wine and trying to get into her head that one, her son – the most level-headed of her children – had become enmeshed in a complicated scheme of blackmail and two that her own sister viewed her so poorly that she had actually gone to the trouble of hiring a con-artist to fool them and convince them that everything was fine, the only reason they'd even found out was because said con-artist had returned to the City in the company of Georgina Sparks and proceeded to try for more money, unaware that she was being played by Georgina herself. Lily sighed and paced over to the windows, looking out at the City – the morning she was reassured would be bright but in the distance she could see clouds forming which meant rain which would only serve to further dampen her spirits.

"And where do you think you're going?" Lily probed as her son headed toward the elevator, Eric swung his head round toward her and gave her a look that read _caught red-handed_.

"I was gonna go see Jenny actually – we said we'd go to lunch together," Eric revealed, "do you mind?"

"Not at all," Lily said in a voice that suggest she minded very much, "I mean it's not as if you've marred this family in another scandal, you're College has just revoked your offer and to cap it all off you might go to prison – of course you can't go, you aren't leaving this apartment unless I or Rufus say you can – besides Jenny is just getting back on the right path, I wouldn't want what you've done giving her any ideas." Lily turned away, touching at her forehead, sometimes it made her head hurt how complicated her life was.

"I'd give her ideas? Mom you're talking as if I'm some kind of common criminal-"

"-well darling," she said rounding on him, a fearsome look in her eyes, "in the eyes of the law you technically are, you are on bail for conspiracy to commit blackmail Eric, you did something illegal, and surprisingly enough yes now I am classifying you as more troubling than Jenny, she has tried to turn her life around, clearly allowing you to get involved with Charles in the first place was a mistake and now he has started rubbing off on you…I just despair Eric…go back to your room."

Eric turned and started walking way calling out before going into his room, "If I'm so messed up why not send me to the Ostroff Center?" The door slammed and Lily heard the sound ringing in her ears for what seemed like hours before she turned around and found Rufus entering, carrying in the groceries followed by Vanya carrying the others bags of the basic stock supplies that they'd run out off – normally Lily always had it organized so they never ran out but lately she had been, _distracted_. She crossed the room and kissed Rufus affectionately on the lips, rooting about in the grocery bags as the elevator chimed shut with Vanya descending to the lobby, she turned after him regretting not having thanked him for his help but instead looked toward Rufus with a smile.

"What would I do without you?" she enquired warmly.

"Find a new slave," he joked and Lily gave him a reproachful grin, the kind that said she'd found his joke amusing but in poor taste, "did Eric go off to see Jen?"

"No I thought he should stay here," Lily stated she regarded Rufus, "you didn't actually tell him he could go did you?"

"I just…I don't think keeping him under lock and key up here is gonna do him any good, I mean you of anyone should be able to emphasize with his position," he paused but found himself unable to decipher whether Lily was annoyed by his train of thought or whether she was beginning to comprehend his viewpoint, "I just think that things are gonna get a little rough, if having lunch with Jen at the Met just allows him to forget about what's happened a little bit then that's no bad thing – you didn't have that chance before Lil…I think you should at least consider letting him out for some fresh air."

Lily looked at the floor and then looked up at him.

"I suppose in a way I'm just taking it out on him," she shrugged, "it isn't fair and I shouldn't but I just…I need to vent somehow Rufus – my sister lied to me, to my mother and to Serena…she couldn't even bring herself to introduce us to her real daughter, she just picked up that girl Ivy from a street corner somewhere…and she didn't even bat an eyelid – I mean are we that terrible?"

"No," Rufus said soothingly, "but she probably feels threatened…besides it isn't like you tell each other everything, I mean you didn't tell Cece or Carol about Eric and the Ostroff Center did you? And why he was in there? All I'm saying is maybe…you need to reassess your outlook on things." Rufus looked toward Eric as he came out of his room and gestured with his head toward the elevator smiling warmly at him.

"Thanks," Eric said genuinely and then looked at his Mom, "you might want to see this Mom," he handed over his phone and Lily briefly scanned the note and then Rufus saw her face crease in a mixture of anger and disbelief, "Carol's back." Eric clued-up.

. . .

_When faced with responsibility and realisation we have one of two options, we can accept the need to act upon our realisation and assume responsibility, or we can ignore the realisation and block it out, hoping that somehow, magically it will disappear for us._

. . .

Serena wrapped her arms tightly around Nate's muscled chest as they swung down another side-street on the Vespa, weaving across Paris had become the norm for them as they fell deeper and deeper into the kind of star-crossed, idolized love that was the stuff of fairytales. Admittedly they were using love to distract them from the respective plight of their best friends but they needed the space, to process what had happened between them, to escape from their problems and to simply take some time out, away from New York and the omnipresent gaze of Gossip Girl and their families, simply to take some time for themselves.

Nate pulled in beside the Café and they sank into the white wicker seats, complemented by comfortable white cushions and Serena waved at their server who whisked away, producing their preferred bottle of Rosé and instantly pouring the two glasses to the brim and leaving the bottle in an ice bucket at the edge of the table – it had been a café Serena and Blair had spent much of their time in Paris visiting, in fact Serena was almost certain one of the waiters she'd entertained a brief liaison with was still working there, he kept shooting dirty looks at Nate who was oblivious, following the busy traffic tearing along the Parisian street in the distance, he sipped at his wine and Serena smiled at them and then looked at her phone – another Gossip Girl blast, the fiftieth unread once since they'd left.

"Don't pay to much attention to what she's doing and what's going on back home," Nate schooled wisely, "just live in the moment, here, with me – you're Mom was the one that said we should get some time away and mine agreed too Serena, if we'd stayed in New York we'd just be depressed now listening to Chuck and Blair about their mistakes – we can't be responsible for them and we can be there for friends when things get really tough, right now we should just enjoy what we have together."

"I know, I know," she promised, smiling weakly at him, "I just…I mean we're in Paris Nate, we spend night sleeping in a beautiful room in an antique building, by day we just sit in little cafés like this and then zoom around the City on the Vespa…it just seems-"

"-too good to be true?" he laughed and sipped at his wine again, she mirrored, "Serena this is the fairytale, we're meant to be living as though everything is perfect and there isn't any bad in the world – these are the good memories so that we have some to blot out the dark stuff that's coming our way."

"I get that…I just…I mean I love you and I love our relationship…but it just seems to have been lived in a way that is so completely…unbelievable…and I just feel as though I don't know where we stand, as though I'm living through a dream without any grounding in reality…I mean if this is all that we have to bind our relationship together then I don't know how we're gonna survive it when we go back…with Blair and Chuck…and everything that's going on…"

"Serena we've known each other since we were born, there isn't anything we don't know about each other anymore," he shrugged, "I mean we know when we each went to our first club or had our first drink or had our first smoke or lost our virginity," he winked at her and she couldn't help giggling at that, "I know you inside and out and you know me perfectly, we're already grounded, the difference is we're just together now, and it's gonna work this time."

"How do you know?" Serena probed, she had to admit she was a little scared, everything seemed so perfect she was just waiting for something or someone to screw it up for them.

"I just do," he grinned at her, "and I don't have any relatives to ruin it for me."

. . .

_Orange scarves and trench-coats are all very well __**C**__, but we didn't take you for a boiler suit kind-of-guy, at least it's your colour though._

. . .

Chuck sidled up to the glass pane and picked up the phone, failing to smile at Dorota on the other side of the glass as she lifted the phone off her side, she didn't smile either, she looked around the prison and clearly it evoked some grim memories, he wasn't happy to see Dorota since it was only really Blair that he longed for, after their passionate kiss he had hoped for their affair to progress but along the way things had gone awry and his blackmail had been discovered – probably a loose link in his legal team, fortunately he was sure that they would succeed in getting him out without charge because they were the best lawyers in the City: and failing that they also had spies placed within the Wessex chain of command and within the superstructure of the City's government itself that would allow them to get him out by under-handed means if fair-minded ones failed. Dorota spoke first.

"She miss you much Mr Chuck," she said with reassuring passion, Blair had in some ways become something of a surrogate daughter to Dorota, despite the birth of Anastasia two years previously, "I tell she still thinks off you over Mr Louis…but she still miss him too, Miss Blair has many faces."

At least that was true, duplicity was one of Blair's prominent and most honed traits – she often made it her business to confuse and outmanoeuvre her enemies and Chuck had fortunately only rarely been on the receiving end of one of her ploys. However from what Dorota was saying it would seem that despite his desire for their affair to eventually develop into a relationship she still harboured feelings for Louis and locked up in a prison cell he would be unable to relieve her of those particular sentiments. He was beginning to regret even more taking the major fall for Eric to ensure that he got out on bail but he knew that Lily would have viewed him even more dimly if he hadn't taken the major wrap for the scheme, sighting Eric as an accessory rather than an instigator.

"Do you think she is going to go back to him in the near future?" Chuck enquired.

Dorota shrugged, "Is anyone's guess Mr Chuck, she seems upset to have lost Mr Louis but also she is always upset about you too – she just not show it to me or anyone, she shows it but does not say it…she is wary of how Mr Louis seems to hear everything."

. . .

_Leading double lives tests the best of us, some can stay the course and others are swept away under the weight of the secrecy and the lies. And when the reckoning comes for us – and one always does, we must always be wary that we emerge on top, for once you lose your footing you lose everything, _

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.


	2. Chapter 2

**Gossip Girl**

**.**

_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

.

_ON THE RHODE TO NOWHERE_

_If looks could kill then we think __**Carol Rhodes **__would've died a long time ago – our insider informs us that her attempts at repair have been firmly rebuffed – and it's just something else to play on __**Lily Van Der Woodsen's **__mind – although since the official reason for the visit is that she's here to support __**E**__, we're left wondering if the next time we see here it'll be __**S **__in the witness stand?_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo __**Gossip Girl**_

.

"How's your mom taking it all?" Jenny asked, searching Eric for an answer – since there friendship had started back when Serena and Dan had first dated she'd always been able to read Eric like a book, it was only recently that she was beginning to lose her touch and find him an enigma – something she blamed on herself for allowing them to grow so far apart. The distance between them was decreasing but she still to an extent felt uncomfortable and awkward at times, like when you see your childhood best-friend for the first time in years and you hardly recognize them.

Eric shrugged, "Not well…I just think Carol on top of everything else isn't helping…if anything she's just making things worse…I mean I almost want to go and see her just to tell her to get out of the city and go back to Miami…I know I have myself to blame for some of her stress but I don't know whether going to see Carol will make things better or worse."

Jenny nodded knowingly and then in a strategic masterpiece plunged her fork forward, clinching the last piece of brownie and stuffing it in her mouth quickly – she and Eric had been playing cat-and-mouse with the brownie they were sharing at the coffee shop and now they were down to the last morsel: and she had won it. She grinned at her triumph but immediately allowed a more sombre look to come over as she caught sight of Eric…he really was torn up about this; she reached across and touched at his hand affectionately.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for trying to be your own person," she said soothingly, only sympathising too well, even if Eric's exploits were rather more serious than her own, "the idea was great just…not the execution you know?" He nodded comprehendingly, "Look I'm glad if you can't talk to Lily or my Dad then you at least have me…till Serena gets back anyway: did she say how Paris is?" the distraction was obvious but then she wasn't trying to disguise a move away from trouble with Lily – if anything it would at least let him focus on something he could be happy about – his sister and her growing romance with Nate, even if Jenny privately harboured doubts whether her stepsister could even make a relationship work, there had been a time when Jenny had respectively idolized Serena, then distrusted her and then moved into outright hate of her but now she was at peace with her stepsister, even if Serena was still hostile toward her.

Eric looked away, focusing upon the traffic languishing in the dying summer heat outside the café and then found himself drawn back to the conversation, "She and Nate are…loving everything about it…the City…its culture…_each other_," they both laughed at that addition, "makes me wish I had someone like that to be with me while I'm going through this."

Jenny looked at him sympathetically, "You've got me…and your Mom and my Dad and Dan and Serena…everyone's gonna be there for you Eric, and we're all behind you, no matter what happens, we just want to be by your side through all of it – I mean from what you've said Chuck's done the hard part in taking the wrap for it…you might have been the actual physical tool for completing the blackmail but Chuck knew what he was doing and if things went wrong then he only has himself to blame."

"I know your right but I'm not blameless in all this," he reminded, "so how's your internship?"

Jenny rolled her eyes.

"It's an _internship_…back to square one."

.

She felt delight return to her for the first time in weeks as Serena swaggered into the room with the confident air of a blonde best friend deeply in love, Blair noted that her eyes flickered towards the slight yet deceptively prominent bump as she crossed the bedroom and bent to hug Blair and then flumped onto the bed beside her, smirking in the cute smitten schoolgirl-ish way that was a habit Serena had failed to shake since she'd first fallen in love with a boy back in Kindergarten. It was especially reminiscent of Serena's previous relationship with Nate which Blair remembered all too well, Serena had been in a constant state of euphoria in regard to her relationship –they both had been for those short, brief, happy months when the four best-friends had been so close and then had been rudely shaken from that proximity together which Blair blamed as much on herself as she did Serena – although depending on your viewpoint they were all to blame except perhaps Nate who had remained curiously aloof, although then again part of the gulf of distance between Serena and Nate she had persistently blamed upon him. Regardless Blair could be pleased that they had repaired the relationships between them, even those which would've a few months earlier seemed irreparable.

"_Gossip Girl_'s kept me reliably informed," Blair clued-up: much as she would have loved to hear about Serena and Nate's romantic mini-vacation to Paris right before the start of school somehow she found herself not wanting to hear the details, "she seems to think we can expect Wedding Bells from you too?"

Serena let out a scathing laugh at that suggestion, "Yeah let's just say I won't be walking down the aisle anytime soon, except maybe in front of you and your Dad?"

Now it was Blair's turn to scoff, "Louis left the morning after Chuck and Eric were arrested," she clued-up and Serena touched at her hand reassuringly, "you never did tell me why you and Nate thought now was a good time to vacay in Paris?"

Serena shrugged, "My Mom and Rufus didn't think having people crowding around Eric would help his spirits and Nate though that a trip might help us…just give us some time to get ourselves composed before we came home – not that we aren't gonna be here for you and Chuck through everything but Nate just wanted us to have some time together…you know cement the relationship and everything," Blair cocked a disbelieving eyebrow at that, Serena felt her composure melt into a guilty smile, "…maybe a little bit of it was about being selfish – but I mean come-on we just wanted some _us_-time!"

"I understand," Blair said, her mock anger fading away, "and on the subject of us-time…I've decided I'm going to fly to Monaco tomorrow…to see Louis – I haven't spoken to him or heard from him since he left Serena, he didn't say why he left, he hasn't said anything to me…I'm not even sure if our engagement is even still on but Dorota reads all the European magazines and at least there's nothing in there…I'm not even sure what to do about this." She said, gently touching at her bulging stomach.

"Well you're committed to having it – how do you decide a custody agreement when the Dad is a Prince?" Serena joked but realized she had struck a nerve and immediately etched her face in apologetic seriousness, "B he's probably just a little shocked at the pregnancy and he'll probably just want to process this: I mean if it's a boy you've basically done what every Queen dreams of right? Having an heir?"

"Yeah but it'll be a bastard Serena – it happened _too early_." Blair reminded and found herself hopelessly thinking again to her dreams of royal grandeur – she hadn't decided which Queens to try and emulate, how she would be an intelligent, formidable Queen and a loyal, loving wife and a caring mother to her children – she had visions of her and Louis posing for their family photograph with a large family of Princes and Princesses clustered adoringly around them, the truth was she had fallen slightly in love with the idea of being a member of a European Royal Family.

"B – the reason you're stressed isn't because the baby isn't Louis's right?" Serena prodded and judged from the malevolent look creased on Blair's face that the baby was Louis's kin, "I'm just checking B you know…I mean you spent that whole night when you chose Louis with Chuck right? The dates check out…I mean it isn't like a whole universe away to suggest that you might be pregnant with someone else's child-"

"-Serena," Blair said, her voice strained and heightened in pitch suggesting rising anger, "Louis is the father of our child, I did not and have not slept with Chuck in more than a year, suggesting anything else is just…just…just…ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous to you maybe but have you thought that maybe that's why Louis is staying away…because he doesn't want to believe or even to consider you might have slept with Chuck…I mean your relationship with Chuck is…complicated and Louis doesn't exactly know you two all that well Blair or your history…but if he's just taken a glance at some of the stuff on Gossip Girl he might get the wrong impression-"

"-which is why when I fly to Monaco and discuss it with him I'll fall lovingly into his embrace, we'll be married and we will have our first baby." Blair said determinedly.

Serena had the urge to venture whether Blair had firmly set her heart on the mood and on not completing College or whether she intended to complete her education in Europe…she had even been wiling to propose that Blair complete college and then continue her engagement and if it panned out in the right way then she could marry Louis for better or for worse – the baby had ruled out that idea and in any case Serena wasn't sure she had the temerity to suggest such an idea to Blair. She instead looked at her friend and then rose to leave, momentarily allowing her eyes to flutter back to Blair's stomach.

"Let's go to dinner tonight – just the two of us okay?" After a few moments Blair nodded giving her consent – she was already becoming more regal by the day – now Serena would have to figure out how to get her viewpoint across without causing offence. The only saving grace was that she had some time to play with – and that was what counted.

.

_Eagled-eyed Upper East Siders amongst you might have a spotted a certain exposé-writer-in-exile venturing out of his Brooklyn abode for the first time in two weeks yesterday, and he was smiling – though it isn't a smile on my lips, it's a question – why so happy __**Lonely Boy**__? _

.

"So you and Serena had fun in Paris?" Dan cocked an eyebrow and Nate smirked.

"It was…amazing," he admitted, being careful to guard his enthusiasm around Dan, "so you've just been laying low here then?"

Dan nodded, "Sent apologies to everyone – you did get yours right?" Nate bobbed his head too, "And…I've just been shutting myself away focusing on some reading before going back to school – did she…did she get what I was trying to say in the apology?"

"She did – I think it would've just been better if that's what you'd actually said first time around." He let out a laugh – it was true that Dan hadn't exactly been all that sympathetic when he'd first told Serena about how he felt about what he'd said in the exposé and his opinions of his closest friends but the email had at least come across as being sincere and Serena had responded well to that – or maybe she'd just been happy to have another distraction from what was going on back in the City: Nate hadn't been sure. Besides with her scriptwriting career dead in the water after Vanessagate – at least that was what Serena was calling, Nate wasn't exactly sure whether Gossip Girl had given that disastrous interview a name yet – Serena needed her friends around her to distract her, and though he hated to admit it somehow Serena in the few years she'd known Dan had become incredibly close and attached to Dan, it had taken Nate a lifetime to work his way into her confidence, but he didn't hold it against Dan. If anything he was glad to have his friend by his side since Chuck was in jail – he needed someone to talk to.

"Enough about Serena though – have you spoken to Chuck? Lily went to see him and…he's…not looking too great." Dan revealed slowly – he didn't want Nate to snap at him, there friendship had only just cleared a rough patch, he didn't want to do anything by exacerbating Nate's protective side in regard to Chuck against himself, that wouldn't help anyone – least of all Dan, "Blair said that-"

"-wait Blair went to see him?" Nate said, suddenly sitting up with interest.

"She sent Dorota," Dan corrected and Nate slumped back into his seat, "but she's certainly…interested in Chuck…I guess she still cares about him."

"Sure," Nate affirmed, "and no I haven't spoken to him – I don't think he'd use his one phone call to reach me anyway…how bad is he?"

Dan shrugged, "According to my Dad," Dan paused to figure out a way to put the facts sensitively, "Lily was really shaken up by how he looked Nate…she's never seen him this bag…even after Bart died…I mean I guess he could be getting substances in but he's just…in a rut."

"Maybe he wants to see Blair?" Nate suggested and Dan arched an eyebrow in speculation that implied Nate should go on, "I'm just saying…he clearly still loves her…maybe if he saw her then he'd get reinvigorated or whatever, you know get the fight back in him?"

"I guess Dorota going shows she cares-" Dan mused aloud before being cut-off.

"-yeah but it won't be enough for Chuck…he'll need to actually see her, she'll be the only he'll listen to," Nate rummaged in his pocket as he received a text and scanned it, "listen…would you mind going and talking to Blair for me? Serena says Blair's leaving tomorrow and I have to go see my parents about something – just…talk to her okay?" Nate was already getting to his feet as Dan rose to protest.

"Are you sure I'm the best person to talk her round, why can't Serena do it?" Dan probed.

"Serena has her reasons," Nate deflected in a detached manner, "look I'll see you later or something, thanks man – I know you and Chuck don't always see eye-to-eye but this'll mean the world to him." That was an _understatement_ Dan thought to himself grimly.

.

_On the Upper East Side expect the unexpected – although we never expected to see __**Lonely Boy**__ lingering outside __**B**__'s building, why the nervous looks Lonely Boy? You might give people the impression you have something to hide. _

.

Dan idled at the doorway a few minutes more and then finally having worked up the courage slipped inside the building and thumbed the door. The elevator ride – unfortunately in his case – was swift, he had barely a few seconds to think of how to phrase is argument before the doors chimed open and he was admitted into the apartment: several suitcases were lined up in the foyer as Blair swept regally down the staircase as she might have done back when she'd ruled Constance with an iron grip, she looked at him imperiously and accelerated down the stair-case, her gown almost but not quite disguising the slight bump in her chest.

"Dorota – who let Humphrey in?"

"I let myself in," Dan said in a voice he thought it was too quiet to hear but Blair picked up on it immediately, swinging her head towards him furiously, "and-and-and," he said, nervously stuttering and flailing helplessly as he had done when first admitted to their world four years earlier, "I just want to talk Blair…so please don't…do anything hasty?" His eyes fluttered to the cases, "Are you going…somewhere?"

"Monaco," Blair affirmed, this afternoon, "and you being here is just going to make me _late_."

"Just…just five minutes," Dan promised and gestured to the Chaise Longue which she settled on, Dan took one of the armchairs and looked at her, "so you're going to see Louis?"

"Yes I am," she said as though it were the most elementary thing – which after all it was, even if Humphrey couldn't think of her engagement as a good enough reason to go to Monaco, "why?"

"Just wondering…I thought…you know that you might have reason enough to stay in the City…I mean he left remember, aren't you meant to wait for him to come back or some-"

"-great Queens don't wait Humphrey they act," Blair recited, clearly she'd learned that quote somewhere and she seemed very pleased with herself to have been able to repeat it, "I'm not going to explain myself to you Humphrey but needless to say I need to go to Monaco…I have to try and save my engagement, convince Louis that we can raise _our child_ together."

"Yeah…what happened to Georgina after she dropped that bombshell?" Dan probed, Gossip Girl had the day after wishing to make as much from the drama of the previous night before, added that Georgina Sparks had revealed the news about Blair and had since disappeared from Gossip Girl's blasts.

"She left, like any sensible person would," Blair revealed, "why are you here Humphrey – we aren't about to see an Art Film and you aren't in love with Serena…you aren't you?"

"No," Dan rebuffed – that really was ridiculous, "Nate asked…he wants you to go and see Chuck…he thinks that Chuck's losing the will to live without having seen you…if you go see him he'll snap out of the rut and get out…for you…but I guess if you're going back to M-"

"-Nate spoke to Chuck about this?" Blair enquired, she didn't let the excitement be betrayed in her voice but it certainly gave rise to the voices she had been trying to push to the back of her head asking her to stay in the City and wait for the verdict of Chuck's trial…however she recognized the need to rescue her relationship with Louis, she was carrying his child, Chuck would at best be a lover, at worst a friend that would always be there in her dark times…she wanted…she needed a man she could marry, and Louis was that man, she was meant to go there. Even before Dan had responded she knew his answer couldn't change her mind, she was set on a course and if she could help it she wouldn't founder from it.

"Not exactly," that gave her even more reason to ignore it, "look just…be careful," Dan rose suddenly, "I wouldn't want to see anything-"

"-happen to me?" Blair finished and smiled, "I'll see you when I get back Lonely Boy…and keep this to yourself," she said as she walked him to the elevator, "I might have told a certain leggy blonde I'm not leaving till the morning to avoid her, understand?"

Dan nodded though as usual the complicated web of intrigue and plots surrounding Blair had passed through one ear and out the other, he would never understand her, or her idea of friendships and relationships – if you could call them that.

.

_For the important things in life, we must fight to win them and if we do not fight then we must expect to lose them - spotted __**B**__ stepping out of private limousine at JFK and boarding a flight to Nice – bon voyage B, let's just hope this trip doesn't end in tragedy, _

_Xoxo __**Gossip Girl**_

.

Hope you liked Chapter 2,

Reviews and responses welcome and appreciated,

Acrobat

X


	3. Chapter 3

**Gossip Girl**

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_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite._

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_BLUSHING BRIDE TO B? _

_When we bid bon voyage to __**B**__ we expected her to be warmly received in Monaco, but looks as if things have turned frosty – although looks as if __**Louis **__lost Blair's message in translation because there was no-one there to meet her off the flight. When publicly humiliated we expect B to bounce back – but from her look on landing we'd say the bounce has broken,_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.

Blair lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the mob of paparazzi; flashing their cameras every second taking more photos of her looking hideous. She breathed a sigh of relief as the saloon drew inside the Royal Palace and sped up the driveway, she allowed her gaze to flutter distractedly towards the fountain, bubbling on the lawn and then spotted Louis, walking with his mother in the garden. She had expected an icy reception but not having anyone there to meet her was arctic on her cold shoulder scale; Louis must know something else or maybe she hadn't gauged how important having a baby was. She cast her head back to look towards the Palace and when she looked back Sophie was alone, bending down to smell the fresh-flours amongst the beds. She stood up, her head crowned by an enormous sun-hat as the car drew up and Blair stepped out. She still hadn't mastered the art of maternity wear wonders but she was sure after careful consultation of only the most majestic mothers-to-be maternity wear wardrobes that she would evolve something equally if not more elegant for herself. At this point she was reduced to a maxi-dress and simple emerald necklace.

Sophie crossed the garden quickly to meet her and smiled at her warmly, embracing her in a warm hug which Blair hadn't completely expected, she stood back and Blair realized she was admiring Blair's bump, Sophie stuck out a hand instinctively to touch it and then moved back gingerly, as though she thought Blair might attack her for it – the prospect for Blair was both weird and uncomfortable but at the same time she recognized that she was just going to have to get used to this.

"You are looking well my dear," she greeted, touching at Blair's face to put a stray hair back in place, "your hair…is quite lovely, is the City nice?"

"For the time of year," Blair replied with a bemused expression on her face, she wasn't even sure this was Princess Sophie, she was after all being incredibly nice and she never asked about New York, she hated the City – she much preferred both the Mediterranean Climate and the architecture, she was one of those people that viewed the skyscrapers as oppressive and modern: which in some cases they were but it didn't necessarily mean they were all bad, she also hated the climate of New York, taking everything to extremes – if it was warm for Sophie it was humid, if it was cold for Sophie it was freezing, "although I haven't seen that much…I've been trying to stay at home for as much as possible…I was actually waiting for a call."

Sophie nodded, "I believe Louis was a little taken aback by the news, though I have reassured him that although it is not exactly traditional this is a blessing, to be with child at such a young age, naturally it will ensure the continuation of our family," she smiled at Blair, "although I must admit he has been a little…distant…concerned with his own affairs: and more than usual…normally the affairs of state are tiresome for him but he seems to find them more interesting now."

Blair almost detected amidst the dulcet French-sounding tones a note of surprise amongst them – not as strong as concern but certainly one that like her own inner feelings of bemusement suggested that Sophie herself was more than a little confused by what was happening to her son, or what had happened to him.

"Where did he go just now?" Blair enquired, "I though I saw him-"

"-he is tending to his horses, a few have been brought in especially from the Polo Match," she said, smiling encouragingly, "he has been strained by the news of your pregnancy Blair and even a little stressed but he is at his calmest around his horses, in some ways that is where he belongs Blair, with the animals…he is so attuned to them, it is why his grandmother always said he was so good at Polo…he is attuned to them."

Blair nodded – perhaps it was a Monegasque tradition to talk to your horses, although Blair could brush over that if only Louis would talk to her, "I'll see to it that my things are readied and then I'll go see him." Sophie nodded obligingly and Blair walked slowly towards the Palace, trepidation building inside of her – now it was time for the reckoning – time to discover what Louis was really thinking.

.

"So convincing Blair-"

"-didn't work," Dan finished succinctly, "she's just…in…in the mindset of needing to cement herself, Blair doesn't like the unknown she likes understanding everything and being in control – she needs stability, a place to call home…and at the moment I don't think she sees that in Chuck…even if she did have feelings for him I think…I think she doesn't see him as part of _her plan_."

Nate nodded acceptingly – he recognized that trait in Blair too, she liked the idea of knowing what would happen, when they'd dated she had liked planning how they would be married one day and have children and have a family that would dominate the Upper East Side for generations to come, it was also reflected in her former adoration of Yale – she had known since she was little how she would live her life, what she would do and what her life would be remembered for, she was pragmatic too but she remained dedicated to the ideal of her life being confirmed and set in stone. Deviations were something she didn't like – clearly Louis was the straight and narrow, Chuck the labyrinth.

"You did the best you could man – that's what matters, so have you heard from Serena yet?" Nate probed – he had already floated the idea with Serena of talking to Dan, but it was more a question of whether Serena had actually taken the step of talking to him or not, he recognized that Dan was a part of her life and he wasn't jealous; he could accept Dan's presence in their lives because Dan was at once his and Serena's friend.

Dan shook his head, "I mean I tried calling her but it went straight to voicemail and then I text her a few times but…she wasn't too interested, I guess with Eric and what happened with Charlie she has a lot going through her mind though."

Nate nodded again, "Yeah but I kinda…asked her to talk to you…sorry man I know how crappy that sounds now but…she likes talking to you, even if she doesn't realise it herself…and sometimes you're better for her to talk to than I am…we work with her on different wavelengths…and with her family it was always easier for her to open up to you because you could offer…a different viewpoint on things."

_Different_ Dan reflected was an understatement – he moved in a different world than they did – if they lived in a world of extravagant parties he lived in a world of bars and underground band performances, if they lived in a world of elegant balls, he lived in a world of highly illegal parties in rundown warehouses – not that he lived in that world anymore – it was more accurate to say that had lives in different worlds, his viewpoint remained unchanged despite immersion in the world of the Upper East Side, it was simply the case that he was still an outsider in a world where being an outsider was not a good thing, where eccentricity was frowned upon and where individuality was – if the parents were successful – crushed at an early age.

"Yeah well…getting Serena to do something she doesn't want to…is…like making mountains move." Dan stated without sarcasm – she was stubborn and rooted in her opinions, she might change on a whim but making her doing something she wouldn't ordinarily – that was superhuman.

"Did Blair say why she didn't want to go see Chuck?" Nate prodded, changing a subject, he would have to work on Serena himself – and by work he meant spend every hour they had together lobbying her – subtly – to talk to Dan.

"Well," Dan paused – what he and Blair had…or had had – it wasn't exactly clear where he stood in her affections – was not necessarily for public release, Blair he recognised was embarrassed she harboured even the slightest affection for Dan, while Dan couldn't believe he had gone one better than Serena and actually fallen for a girl who was everything about the Upper East Side in a reasonable world he should have hated, and that left him with whether to tell Nate that Blair hadn't told him why she wouldn't see Chuck but instead had distracted him that she wasn't concerned about his affections in what was in Blair a way of saying that in fact she was obsessed by the possibility that Dan might be protective of her, "she didn't _explicitly_ say anything," at least that might pacify Nate, "but I got the impression that she really wants to try and make things with Louis work…or at least see if rescuing that is possible before pursuing other…options. She's going out there because she has to…I asked her if she thought she had stuff to stay in the City for and she basically…said she didn't."

"Ouch," Nate thought aloud, that would have been an almighty slap in Chuck's face, "thanks man anyway…I know you and Blair don't always see eye-to-eye-"

"-no worries man," Dan replied coolly, eager to move off the topic, "you'd do the same for me." Although how he would get into the same situation he didn't know – in a normal world anyway.

.

_We live in a City that talks, but the only talk that matters is gossip – and what am I gossiping about today Upper East Siders? The most boring bromance we've ever seen is back-on, and looks as if __**Lonely Boy**__ and __**Nate**__ are BFFs again which is bad news for N's nowhere to be seen BFF-behind-bars __**Chuck Bass**__ – then again N's been visiting at prison so much recently we think he'll be getting a little tired of it by now. _

.

"And here I thought my day couldn't get any worse." Serena said as she rounded the corner, casting her head skyward as though to rebuke whatever divine entity had intervened in her life for the worse again and then focusing back upon the women seated before her in the lobby of her building, her eyes falling – unfortunately to her mind – upon her Aunt Carol, clearly trying to stress her supposed difference to the world of her niece, sister and mother by choosing to wear a very clearly _normal_ pair of jeans, cheap-wedges and jacket that might have come from a yard sale – not that Serena was trying to be mean but if Carol wanted to play the _I'm so different to you spoilt snobs_ card, she thought it mildly amusing to indulge herself in playing up to the imagined stereotype.

"Serena," Carol greeted warmly – Serena wasn't sure whether it was actually a warm greeting but she could presume there was an agenda behind it so took to warmth as if Carol had greeted her icily, she stood up and leaned forward for a hug but Serena backed away and regarded her Aunt – was that a note of desperation she could detect?, "I know I deserved that but look…I'm here because I want to make amends and…and I want to get back to where we were before."

"Before what?" Serena enquired smiling mock-innocently with a sickly sweet edge that would make old-relatives believe their grand-child still really was the innocent child they remembered playing the sandbox and convince younger, wiser relatives that a take-down was forthcoming, "Before you used a con-artist to trick us all into believing you cared about Mom, or before you used that con-artist to steal money from Charlie's trust fund, or," Serena grinned triumphantly, "is it before when you used to say what horrible, snobby people we were and still took cheques from Grandma on the side? Which _before _Carol?"

She frowned deeply, though Serena couldn't understand why, she deserved every single comment she had levied at her, she was a living, breathing hypocrisy, so determined to stay away from the Upper East Side and yet still taking the best of it behind closed doors, "Oh did you lose your voice, well I'll let you get it back." Serena went to walk past her put she paused as she regarded Carol who seemed to have a grim realisation etched upon her face, she rolled her eyes and offered a weak, slightly strained smile, "Let's just for argument's sake say that I actually care about what you have to say – for the _real_ Charlie's sake that is – what do you have to say for yourself?"

Carol nodded and took a deep breath.

"Family is…important to me and should have always been important, its just that I place my…immediate family before the entire Rhodes-Van Der Woodsen…whatever branches of the family, Charlie is special to me and I'm protective of her, just like Lily is protective of you and Eric," Carol cast her eyes towards the traffic trundling past the building at a snail's pace, "you have to understand that when you last met Charlie you were that adorable, butter-wouldn't-melt little girl that I thought was the perfect role model for Charlie and Eric was the cute little boy that was obsessed with…everything boyish.

"But you know after a while stories emerged about you – I mean I grew up here so I knew what went on but…there were so many stories about you Serena…really _terrible_ things, like you drinking and then having sex in Central Park with married men, or partying all hours of the night and then waltzing into School still hung-over. Admittedly Eric was less…afflicted in the media but all your…dirty laundry has been hung out to dry by the media, and it's intimidating. I keep friends here in the City Serena and…I have the impression that it isn't the best place for a naïve young-person to grow up or to spend time. Charlie's a special girl…I don't want her getting involved with the wrong people."

"So you're implying I'm friends with the wrong people, or that Eric is?" Serena cocked an eyebrow.

Carol frowned, "Serena, your brother is on bail for conspiracy to commit blackmail and you…don't exactly have the cleanest slate at the moment…there's a whole history of drug and alcohol abuse…and sex scandals surrounding you…look I'm sorry none of this is coming out right…Serena I'm sure you and your friends are all great…really nice, good people now…but Charlie's just not at the same…mental age…she's younger Serena…here you all grow up fast and I didn't think she was ready for it, or prepared to be immersed in this world of…this world that you live in."

Serena was trying to fight back the increasing and rising anger inside of her and was just – just barely managing to resist the urge to fire back, "Why didn't you say any of this at first?"

"It's not that simple – you and Eric were and still are good people and Lily would've reassured me that she'd be absolutely fine here," Carol admitted sincerely, "but it's my choice…as a mother…whether to expose my daughter to this."

Serena paused – for a moment she felt a pang of respect for Carol, and then it was extinguished by something else, she could remember the days that her mother had made all her decisions for her, had taken every key move and change out of her hands, left her devoid of control or ability to shame her life, and then she thought of Charlie – what kind of a life was that? Nobody deserved to be treated in that way, to be controlled and have someone playing with your life, choosing which paths for you to take…it hadn't helped her at all and it hadn't done any benefit, if anything rather than help it had harmed her.

"Carol…just…just get out," Serena frowned, "my Mom doesn't want to listen to this, I shouldn't have listened to it…you can go back to Charlie, you win…because I doubt anyone here wants to talk to you and if talking to Charlie means having to know you…maybe…maybe it isn't worth it."

.

Louis paused to regard the photos, the evidence was conclusive and it had preyed upon his mind the entirety of his extended-exile from New York while he debated what to do next, Blair was pregnant – that had at least provided him with suitable cover for his estrangement from her – but did that change things? Could he overlook the fact that she had at the very least met Chuck, and if he allowed all possibilities to run away with him perhaps even decided upon beginning an affair – a secret, hidden, tainted affair of the kind that he had feared all his life would plague his marriage as it had plagued his parents.

He loved Blair, more sincerely than he had ever loved anyone in his life – she was amusing, charming, intelligent, caring and sweet – she was his ideal wife, and the ideal person to act as his Consort. But if she really was still in love with Chuck and they had decided on an affair – child or no child – they could no longer be together, at least…he was unsure whether he could continue in the relationship, it was unfair to him for her to continue an affair, and it was also impractical – they were in the private eye, transatlantic flights and midnight liaisons would eventually filter through into the press and someone would eventually put the two things together and form the correct opinion: the fear was consuming.

He looked up as Blair strolled towards him and handed the photographs to his attendant – Mathieu – allowing him to disappear as he approached Blair and embraced as her fondly and lovingly as he should for his fiancée and then pecked her on the lips affectionately, "I'm so glad you came Blair."

"I didn't really have a choice," she admitted – not in a coarse, hard voice but in a soft, sweet one, "you didn't really leave me with a lot of options…I thought…I thought that if I didn't come here…you might never come back to me. That I'd just be waiting till I got a letter in the mail telling me the engagement was off."

"I was simply a little taken aback at the news of the baby," he admitted, only mildly falsely, "why would you think our engagement was off? Is there something else-"

"-no," Blair interjected quickly, not breaking eye contact: the first sign of a lie, "I just…I wasn't sure whether this was exactly what you wanted from a Consort…whether it was…the _Royal _way of doing things."

Louis shrugged, "I was simply musing Blair, would you care to walk with me," she didn't refuse and took his arm as they strolled through the sprawling, verdant gardens, the flowers still in bloom, their bright colours criss-crossing the garden, "upon something – you seemed…upset about Chuck being arrested at the Gala…I wondered whether perhaps you still have feelings for him?"

Evidently the game was up Blair surmised, "Where are you going with this?"

"I was given photographic evidence of you being visited at your dress fitting with him," Louis revealed, watching Blair closely to see how she reacted though she remained serene and completely calm, not buckling under pressure, "and then at the Gala you both disappear at the same time – I cannot believe I have to ask you this but are you having an affair?"

Blair paused, frozen at that point – which mattered more at this point, because she could see two eventualities, she admitted she still had feelings for Chuck and left the Prince pregnant, or she sacrificed her love for Chuck in the pursuit of happiness – if not passion – with Louis as Consort, happiness that might with effort and detachment from New York become love, if she so chose to desire. She chose within seconds – hesitation might produce a verdict without her approval.

"It was one kiss," she responded swiftly, but coolly, "and it was stupid, and immature, and childish and I'm sorry…I was being…an idiot…I should never have let him come and see me at my dress fitting," _although she had asked him personally_, "I wasn't thinking straight I just…I was lonely…and needed company, and you weren't there for me."

"I know, I'm sorry," Louis regarded her with a piercing stare, "Blair answer this next question truthfully – if I overlook this will you promise to cut all ties to Chuck, and commit yourself to our relationship, our marriage and to…our child," the worlds sounded alien coming from his voice, sounding so dark, so imposing…but they needed saying, "do you promise Blair, do you give your word?"

Her entire life she had known Chuck, for three years she had harboured then lost and then harboured again feelings for him, he had been her life, her rock, her one true supporter on the Upper East Side, her soul-mate at her side, her guardian angel, her protector…there had been so much darkness in him…but that was to overlook the multitude of joy and delight he had brought to her life, the seduction, the allure, she had even planned upon wedding him someday in a beautiful ceremony.

"I do." Somehow it all seemed insignificant.

They both cast their heads towards Mathieu as he sprinted down, he paused, mildly out of breath, his face stressed with an evidently important burden.

"You must come with me immediately majesty," he said between quick breaths, "it is your father…he is…he is dying your excellence."

.

_Sometimes we find ourselves in need of decisive action, in need to remove ourselves from our past and move forward, without thought to what we were giving away in order to achieve greater success – but before we sacrifice everything we hold dear in the pursuit of the unknown we should be careful to look at what will be lost, because once we lose it, it's lost for ever,_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl _


	4. Chapter 4

**Gossip Girl **

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_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

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_SERENA SCRIPT-WRITING? _

_When your reputation is trashed most go into hiding, but not __**S**__, I have it on reliable information that everyone's favourite leggy blonde has been spotted soliciting screenwriting internships all across the City – and while her ideals are admirable we'd have thought S had learned by now, in a City where talk is everything and everyone is talking about you, you can not and will not make it. Sorry S but it looks as if the serene ship success has sailed for new shores,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.

"Mom," Serena called out, "Mom? Seriously Mom come-on I said I'd go shopping with you and I've been waiting like an hour – and I said I'd meet Nate afterwards," she paused and strained her ear to see if she could actually here her mother stirring: no such look, "Mom! Mom?" She at last heard footsteps and then frowned as Rufus, dressed in one of his pullovers and casual jeans slipped down the staircase looking in his own peculiar way stressed and yet completely tranquil – a balancing act that everyone had to perform in this family. "Is my Mom on the way down yet?"

"No," Rufus deflected, crossing the room to the Kitchen, pouring himself a mug of coffee and preceding to sip at it before continuing, "she…is obviously under a lot of strain right now Serena and I know that you thought a shopping trip might be the best thing to take her mind off it but…did you think about just talking to her? Just sitting and talking to her, I can do my best but I can't really relate…I hadn't seen Carol in…years – you on the other hand were a lot closer to her."

Serena frowned – a long, drawn out chat with her mother about feelings would mean blowing off Nate: she might say it would only take an hour but Serena knew her mother better, Lily Van Der Woodsen didn't do feelings in small measures, you either got the full tragic Opera of feelings or you got nothing it all – it was a product of being raised by Cece in the climate were etiquette was actually taught as a lesson – where you had to learn things like enunciation, Serena flinched at the thought of having to sit through one of those classes. "Fine I'll go see her," she pulled out her phone and called Nate, listening to the tone droning out and feeling ever sadder that she wouldn't get to spend the day with her boyfriend as she'd planned to, "hey look…I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to take a rain-check on today, something came up with my Mom about Carol? Let's…let's make it Dinner instead of lunch okay?" He murmured assent and hung-up – clearly she'd woken him up from a big night. She threw off her trench and strolled up the stairs, swinging round the banister and walking purposefully into her Mom's bedroom, Lily true to form was sat up in bed reading the _New York Times_, frowning disdainfully at one of the stories in it, she looked up and smiled warmly.

"Hello darling," she greeted in her _I'm in the middle of something but I'll get right back to you _voice before focusing once more upon Serena realizing she wouldn't take the brush-off, Serena advanced, seating herself on the end of the vast, luxurious bed, "I'm sorry about our little shopping trip but I'm just…taking things easily…has Carol left yet?"

Serena nodded, "Gossip Girl spotted her at the Airport yesterday, how are you…doing…with Carol and everything…we haven't really discussed it since you threw Blair and Louis that Gala?"

Lily paused – how exactly are you meant to fell after finding out that your own sister doesn't trust you enough to meet her actual daughter and that the con-artist she used also happened to extort money from your own mother – who though not exactly senile and innocent enough to be preyed upon at the same time hadn't deserved to be duped in that manner – and then proceeded to harass your own daughter and generally cause mayhem? Naturally she felt betrayed, hurt by Carol's actions but in a strange way her overriding emotion was regret: not regret for having let her children grow up in this world and let Carol think that, but regret that Carol was so insecure about how she had allowed that world to take her over she wouldn't let her own daughter anywhere near the Upper East Side, emulating one of the most common parental traits of being controlling. "It's difficult, naturally," she began strongly and then faltered, "me and Carol haven't really seen eye-to-eye in a long time Serena, she came back when it was important but she didn't exactly come back for the right reasons – she had an agenda that wasn't just being here, I'd love to say I wanted to make up with her and have everything go back to normal but I think…for now at least we have to shut her out of our lives, we can't go on like this – I can't go on like this."

Serena nodded approvingly, "That's exactly how I feel," Lily seemed to be…a little back to her old self now, "so are we still on for the shopping trip?"

"Of course," Lily affirmed warmly, "just let me get dressed."

She watched her daughter go and then paused, there was a lot more to her feelings to deal with but she was getting through it: just as everyone would have to eventually, and this was after all the only way she knew how. She threw open her wardrobe and began searching for a new outfit to wear out, something that said _she was back, with a vengeance_.

.

Blair remained seated with Louis on the sofa beside the Prince, he was sat upright in his bed but anyone could tell he was a dead man on borrowed time, his face was bathed in sweat which was refusing to abate despite how many times she dabbed at his forehead, he couldn't see very well and his vital organs were shutting down: the stroke that had set off the chain reaction had simply been the first attack upon his body, now the rest of the structure was caving in around it, and she could see that Louis was devastated and visibly shaken – as he should have been. For her part, Blair wasn't entirely all that moved by the Prince – she didn't know him all that well – besides the prospect of Louis replacing him in a day or two had her on a knife edge, she might actually be his Consort, they would be married and actually be Monarch's…she would eclipse Kate Middleton – she would be the most beautiful, gorgeous, raved about Royal on the planet. All it took was one death. She came crashing down from her dream as she returned to the nightmarish reality, his chest was rising slower now, Princess Sophie had been taken away on the Prince's orders: she was not to see him die, the Doctor's thought he might be strong enough for a little longer but they thought he would be dead within the hour, perhaps sooner, depending on how long his heart lasted. He waved and Louis took it as a silent order to leave too, Blair rose too but the old man feebly raised his hand and she stopped and settled onto the sofa regarding the old man. He waited till Louis had left them and closed the door and then Blair moved closer, he seemed calmer somehow.

"I had hoped that I had raised Louis to be a smart man, unfortunately he's a fool who let a stupid infatuation get out of hand," Blair hadn't expect the fiery verbal slap in the face but she didn't respond – the man was after all dying, "what are you Blair? A New Yorker who in our terms is virtually penniless and is in love with a man who is standing trial for conspiracy," Blair flinched and she wouldn't if the old man, barely able to see had noticed her do it, "and my son actually wants to marry you…because your pregnant and your having his heir – very well played Miss Waldorf." He want quiet and Blair wondered whether he might be gone, "Louis knows Blair, deep down or else he will do soon, my wife won't allow him to marry someone like you, she's smarter than he is and than I am, she is also a better judge of character-"

"-Princess Sophie said she approved of our marriage-"

"-to approve is not the same as acceptance," he retorted, "surely you should know by now Blair that what we say and what we actually feel is something else entirely, she simply does not want to annoy her son, she probably thought he might have tired and grown out of you by now-"

"-we are engaged and nothing is going to change that." Blair interjected and then frowned, a single tone was droning in the room, the door flew open and Louis burst in, tears in his eyes and dropped to his father's side, clutching at his hand desperately, devastated, as though it might suddenly return to him and all would be averted – but there was no coming back from death, the hand flopped lifelessly and Louis turned to Blair, full of tears, she dropped to the floor beside him and cleared the tears from his eyes and stroked at him affectionately, kissing him softly on the cheek and then rising to leave him: she would go and attend to Princess Sophie – or was that Dowager Princess now? – Blair shook the thought out of her mind, she didn't have time to dwell on things like that, she had to be a good fiancée and Princess-to-be.

"Blair," Louis called out, and she stopped on her heel, worried that his father might have said something to him, come back to life for a moment, "what…what did he say to you?" Louis asked, his voice breaking at one point as he stifled a sob.

"He wanted," she paused – there simply wasn't a possibility she was saying what he had really said, "he said…he was glad that you would have me to help you, to help guide you…he gave us his blessing to be together, to be married Louis…he also told me to promise to tell his grandchild about him, and about what he meant to you, to Monaco." She had carried off the lie perfectly, and it was hardly the most difficult she had had to tell yet, and she was almost certain it wouldn't be the last.

.

_Duplicity is something we like to think we know a little about, but duplicity in pursuit of peace? How lame. Looks as if __**N **__decided to play negotiator – between __**S**__ and __**Lonely Boy**__ that is. And talking of duplicity, everyone's favourite damsel never-in-distress __**G**__ just got off the train at Grand Central, and she looks amazing – I guess those country yoga retreats can work wonders, all though we're left wondering whether G's sun salutation was just a distracting disguise? _

.

"And Nate set me up," Serena said, rolling her eyes skyward again, this really wasn't turning into a great day, "of course he did…because I wasn't stupid enough to see this coming." She slumped onto the bench out of resignation to her fate – she'd half considered sprinting away from Dan at lightning speed and disappearing: despite her towering heels, but then she'd thought better of it, she was here now she could make do and confront the elephant in the City – Dan's expose and his feelings toward her that had been so very publically and painfully expressed when it had been published.

"Yeah well…if it makes you feel any better I didn't know either," Dan said taking the seat beside her, looking out toward the lake which they'd walked around so many times before, "do you think he knew that this was our spot?" Dan quizzed, Serena surveyed the bench, it was indeed _their bench_ where they'd spent so many afternoons just watching the ducks swim by on the lake, in each others arms – back then things had seemed so simple, now they actually had lives to lead, ones that mattered and were going places, different places, places that if they didn't intervene they wouldn't be able to get to each other from. They were both going to stay in the City for the time being obviously but even that wasn't necessarily close.

She shrugged, "I never told him about it but that doesn't mean he didn't know…I mean we spent so many afternoons here all those days ago."

"Yeah…we did," Dan admitted, dwelling upon his memories of those days for a few minutes, "I guess you know why he set us up though right?"

Serena smiled as though she knew but she didn't want to say – reluctance might have summed her up pretty accurately at that point, "Dan I'm sorry I've been distant and haven't accepted your apology…I know you have your opinions and everything but…you kinda can't really apologize and then go, but I still don't like you. People don't live like that and they don't remain friends by insulting one another…I mean our friendship has been…a rollercoaster…and I want more than anything just to go back to being friends, being able to talk to one another easily and relax around one another…but…we can't really do that till you look back at yourself and know that you're in the wrong."

Dan nodded sincerely.

"You know I used to get a flutter every time you called me, or I saw you, or we even just exchanged a word in the hallway, it was like there was this tiny little butterfly in my stomach that just flapped madly every time it saw you…that was how I knew I was in love, then we broke up…a few times," Serena smiled at that memory…they hadn't exactly been able to stay away from one another for very long in those days, "we both matured and I just reassessed how I saw you and retreated into what I thought I knew about people like you…and I wrote about it…at the worst possible times…when I was unhappy…or angry…or in a dark place…and it wasn't fair. What I thought were my opinions weren't my opinions…they were coloured by a negative emotion so I reacted negatively…and I…I guess I'm trying to say that I'm sorry for what I wrote about you and how I portrayed you, and for saying that I actually believed in what I'd written. I just guess sometimes I spend so much time living in the world of fiction that I forget all about the facts."

Serena nodded comprehendingly, somewhere deep within him she could see that innocent glimmer of hope that she had always seen when he used to shave his hair and just read depressing poetry all the time or watch art-films or spend all his time holed up in Brooklyn – not that she didn't think that was a respectable way to live your life, she was sure he was happy there, but venturing out into the City had broadened his horizons as hers had been broadened when she had spent summers abroad in other parts of the world. There was that innocence still within him, the quality that had attracted her to him, at first as a boyfriend and now as a friend, he was a good guy. It had just taken him a while to get back to that.

"We're cool," she replied after realizing she'd left him to dwell on her reaction for a little while, "do you feel like taking a walk?" she asked standing up and Dan nodded, Serena then paused as she stood up and rummaged in her coat-pocket for her now vibrating phone, the ringtone blaring out loudly, causing people all around to look at them, not that she blushed under pressure as she answered it.

Serena's face went through several expressions before she finally said, "Oh my god," she paused, there was more chatter on the end of the phone, "oh my god B…I'll…I'll be on the next flight I guess…you don't want me to fly out? Okay I'll just wait at this end then for more news." She put the phone away and then grinned at Dan ecstatically and he gave her one of his _I have no idea what excitement you're going through_ looks and she threw her arms around him in a hug. "Well okay there is some bad news, Louis's Dad just passed away," Dan interjected with a sad noise but Serena continued beaming regardless, "which means Louis's coronation is like in a week but before that they're getting married – we're going to a Wedding Dan – a _Royal Wedding_!"

.

"What are you doing here?" Chuck asked as he picked up on the phone on his side of the glass, Georgina was simply beaming at him from the other side, "For one thing you tried to tear apart my family and for another I already hate you-"

"-because Blair hated me?" Georgina smiled at him malevolently, "Please Chuck move on from the lovesick Puppy act, it's depressing and more than a little pathetic, I mean she is marrying Louis Grimaldi in a few days and then she's going to be King: or don't you get CNN in here?"

Chuck frowned at her, part of him wanted to smash through the glass and kill her so she'd stop terrorizing all their lives and just leave them alone, but the other wanted to here what she had to say about Blair: how pathetic did that make him? She wasn't going back to Grimaldi, she had promised they had been lovers that theirs would be the most passionate affair on record – she couldn't have chosen Louis…she wouldn't do that to him, she wouldn't. Would she?

"Since you don't know she left for Monaco yesterday, in fact I'm told she even ducked out of dinner with Serena and now the Prince of Monaco's died, so that means Blair will be Queen or Princess or whatever just as soon as there's a coronation ceremony." she grinned at him ever more sadistically.

"What do you want Georgina?"

"Well I really want to see you stand for trial, and I just wanted to come and tell you that I found something that will ensure that little Eric goes down with you too – I have to say I do love being a bitch, especially when it means I can come back to the City and ruin all your lives," Georgina stood up and then bent down and kissed the glass, a blood-red lips outline being framed on the glass, she pulled out her lipstick and scrawled an XOXO before picking up the phone and completing, "you know you love me." She strolled out purposefully, she had just caused Chuck unimaginable pain and now she'd left him to stew. Delightful.

.

_We've seen __**G**__ walk out of a lot of places although we can't say we've ever seen her at a prison before – and the only person even worth visiting in there has to be __**Chuck Bass**__ which leaves us with two possibilities – either the Upper East Side has just been introduced to the most unlikely romantic rendezvous since records began or G has some delicious dirt that she's so excited to dish she just had to tell the Bass in person. And as for __**B**__ looks as if she managed to make Mission Monaco a miraculous success – she's going to be a Wedding Belle, and with her beast behind bars looks as if this Beauty is going to have a Ball,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.

Hope you liked Chapter 4,

5 might be a little time,

Reviews and responses welcome,

Acrobat

X


	5. Chapter 5

**Gossip Girl**

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_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

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_G GRINNING TODAY, A GONER TOMORROW?_

_Normally when summer turns to fall most of you Upper East Siders jet out of the City at every opportunity, but not __**G**__, in fact flushed with the triumph of her most recent crushing victory over __**S **__and __**B**__, she's been bold enough to break her exile once again, but we'd advise caution G. Confidence is a credit, but we suggest you watch your back G, you never know who's gaining on you, B might be in Monaco but that doesn't mean she's neglecting New York, and we know that this bitch bites hard, _

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.

"Look is there anything that you can think off that Georgina might know about-"

"-Serena you don't really think she'd send Eric to prison do you?" Lily enquired, receiving a look that she took to be Serena's expression of the fact that if she couldn't even believe Lily had actually asked the question.

"Georgina is…a sociopath, a psychopath…she's been completely hell bent on ruining my life, _our lives_," she corrected, looking Nate in the eyes who had for most of the little meeting been transfixed by the skyline, allowing his thoughts to drift like clouds in the sky, in and out of the conversation, "and clearly Eric is her knew target so yes Mom, I think she would send Eric to prison, and I think she wants to send Chuck there too…we just have to figure out what it is she knows so we can prepare," Serena paused and looked to Eric in her most encouraging, inviting sisterly face, "Eric come-on, there has to be something?"

She had never seen her brother quite as scared as he looked now, it wasn't outright cowardice at going to prison – he could acknowledge he had done something wrong, it was a kind of primal fear, of being thrown into the jungle, as though he – the gazelle – was being thrown to the lions, wondering whether he would be mauled to death or kept alive for abuse as amusement for them. She could emphasize but she couldn't allow it to get in the way of giving him the best possible preparation for the Court Case – maybe they could get him out on House Arrest or something if they could get the charges scaled down.

"I mean there's always…_Damien_."

Serena raised an eyebrow, she hadn't even considered Damien Dalgaard – mainly because she hadn't seen him in more than a year and she hadn't made the connection – Eric having a friendship with a Drug Dealer, acting as a Drug Mule…she never had quite understood their relationship but she could understand implicitly how that might call into question Eric's integrity, if they were pleading he had been manipulated by Chuck into doing it (at least that was what she understood Chuck's claim of responsibility for the blackmail to be) then the Damien aspect would negate that claim, Eric had willingly participated in work with a Drug Dealer. _Perfect_.

"Did he coerce you into helping him Eric?" Serena prodded, kneeling beside her seated brother, touching at his hand affectionately, supportively.

Eric paused for a moment, considering his memories of his type with Damien.

"I willingly helped him sometimes," Eric admitted and Lily let out an anguished sigh, "he was there for me when no-one else was…the only time he forced me was the Tulips."

"Just go and meet Jenny," Lily said distractedly and Eric stood uncertainly, and then left when it became clear Serena and Nate would wait to speak with his mother, they watched him go and then Lily turned to the two of them, "is there anyway that we can paint this in the light of Damien being the instigator and manipulating him every time?"

"Wait lying, under oath?" Nate probed, confusion showing in his puzzled expression. "Lily he's already in enough trouble, I don't think we wanna make things worse do we?"

"That entirely depends," Lily murmured, "if the lying will help him get out." She said bitterly.

"Mom he's trying to help." Serena said softly.

"Well no-one can help Serena," Lily said and Serena saw the cracks in her composure showing in the strained, angry tone to her voice, "Eric committed blackmail with Charles and whether we like it or not is going to end up in prison for it, and Georgina is just going to make things a hell of a lot worse."

.

Georgina sparks lowered her sunglasses as she ordered herself an exquisite glass of champagne and swung round on the chair to scan the bar – surveying her kingdom, not all of it of course, but one of the parts of it that she was sure she would see a lot of. _Kingdom-to-be_, she reminded herself. She was a few battles short of winning the war, but she was already confident enough to come out in public without fear of reprisal from any of Blair's agents left in the City or from Serena – she was in fact personally seeing to it that Serena had too many family issues to launch a counter-strike against her – and she was also successfully cementing her influence with the right people in the right places, the peoples whose trust she had once held and who she would soon have once more under her seductive spell.

A girl sat next to her and Georgina regarded her – auburn haired, dressed in a minidress tamed with a navy jacket with rolled up stripped sleeves and a pair of simple heels, she placed her handbag – Hermes she noted approvingly – on the bar and promptly plucked her Blackberry, sending what Georgina suspected was an email although she couldn't be sure. The pearls she was wearing – antiques – simply complemented the entire ensemble. It was a shame that this girl was in business – Georgina reflected, why else would she be wearing a jacket at the tail-end of summer – they might have been great friends.

The girl ordered a cocktail – a Martini – and swung around on her stool to look out at the neighbouring skyscrapers and toward the Hudson in the distance, she took her drink and sipped at it carefully before turning around to face Georgina, smiling at her as though they were old friends, Georgina smiled back uncertainly, she had the unnerving feeling she should know a girl like this, beautiful, clearly intelligent and possessed of a fashion style that was indicative of a well bred Upper East Sider: the trouble was she didn't recognize her, nor could she determine if they'd ever met before.

"I love the City at this time of year, don't you?" the girl enquired and Georgina paused a moment, scanning the bar before realizing that she was talking to her.

"It's very…refreshing," Georgina concurred mildly, "are you visiting or-"

"-actually I'm just back from spending a semester studying abroad in Europe, my Cousin has a place in the City so I'm staying there till I have somewhere else to call home more permanently," she sipped at her drink again, "I'm a student at Colombia – where do you go?"

"I don't," Georgina replied, clearly the outfit had been to distract her from something, though she couldn't define exactly what, "I went to NYU but College…isn't for me, so I left – I left pretty permanently actually, but I'm back now, and for good."

"Oh right," the girl said, as though realisation had finally dawned on you, "I saw that Gossip Girl blast – you're that Georgina girl aren't you? How come you went to see Chuck Bass – just between strangers." The girl smiled at her sweetly.

Georgina couldn't decide how she felt. She was annoyed about the fact that the girl didn't know she was Georgina Sparks instinctively, especially if she was an Upper East Sider although that now seemed dubious in light of the fact that her cousin was giving her his Apartment to use. However she at least understood Gossip Girl, although she found it hard to believe that it would have taken the girl so long to figure out that Georgina was the girl in the blast, after all although Georgina wasn't a regular appearance in the posts, whenever she was, it was always big news – unless the girl wasn't a prolific reader of Gossip Girl. In truth she was confused, helplessly confused by it all.

"I had things to discuss," she replied diplomatically, "if you really want to know it was just a show of force, you know since Blair left?"

"Oh yeah," the girl replied and Georgina caught her that time, there was a flicker of recognition in those eyes beyond the usual having seen a person in passing on a post on a blog, the girl clearly registered and understood implicitly what had passed between them, "well do you know what happens when people make a show of force, like Napoleon's invasion of Russia, or the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbour or, or you visiting Chuck?" Georgina paused for a moment – she didn't appreciate being given a history lecture, the girl smiled at her, "The aggressor got crushed _Georgina_," the girl said with recognition as though she knew a lot more about Georgina than she'd let on at first, "you know last year while you were…well actually I don't care where you were, I was here destroying Serena. I'm a bitch that bites, and Blair asked me to keep her seat warm while she's gone. You might have something that you want to dish or try to use to your advantage but be aware two can play that game – takes a bitch to know one, and you might think you know devious, but you haven't met me." The girl smiled at her and Georgina felt a wave of nervousness ripple through her at the gesture, "I'm Juliet Sharp."

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_Europe's buzzing about a certain Queen Bee-to-be, or rather how she stole the show at a sombre ceremony for the late Prince of Monaco, in shades, sunhat and shockingly short minidress. Sounds as if __**B**__ has Europe on the run, but we'd keep our sting on standby if we were you B, you never know when you're going to be crossed. _

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The drawing room was not the largest in the Palace, nor was it necessarily the nicest but its relaxed interior, with cosy armchairs, vast, marble fireplace for the winter and well-stocked liquor cabinet, was suitably understated enough that it wouldn't infringe on the sadness of the occasion. Not that B was particularly sad, of course she was showing the world a face to match the tragedy of the Prince's passing – it would be distasteful after all to show her jubilation at her triumph at the funeral. Her outfit had been outrageous, considering it was a funeral, but her tears had allowed her to pull it of as a formidable show of fashion – her Manolo Kittens had not failed her, nor had the gorgeous Versace dress that she had purchased at great expense from St Tropez (not in person obviously, that might have tipped the media off as to what she was planning, she had wisely sent Dorota) or the enormous sunhat or indulgent shades.

She sipped at her Water – though she would have much preferred a Martini or even just a glass of White Wine to toast her victory she had the baby to think off - as she hovered close to Louis who was himself drinking a Scotch – as were most of the gentlemen. Although she didn't recognize all of them Blair had been studying those attending the Funeral enough to understand that in the room they were entertaining four Dukes, six Counts, one Archduke, five Princes and two Kings (although she couldn't actually remember the African countries they were there representing) – not to mention their various consorts who were littered around the room in clumps. The only notable absence was Princess Sophie – the _Dowager_ Princess Blair corrected herself – but Blair presumed she had simply retired to her bedroom.

"You were marvellous today Blair," Louis said to her quietly, smiling as the Archduke – enormous and Blair had deciphered from his accent and ridiculously large moustache German, swept past them carrying for himself a fresh Cognac, "and not just publicly, I was so glad to have you there to support me today, in front of everyone," he paused a moment and then grinned as he leaned close to her ear, "you also looked amazing."

"_Merci_," she greeted in her fine-tuned French accent, she had also set her mind to learning Italian so she could converse more freely with some of the other Courtiers and was also entertaining the idea of studying German and Spanish, if only to allow her to converse more effectively overseas, "I think although I didn't know him very well that your Father would have been proud of you, the way you handled yourself in front of all those people." She squeezed at his hand and he smiled back at her.

She surveyed the crowd and then spotted a girl, possibly her age perhaps even a little younger moved towards them through the crowd, she had a pale complexion with hazel-coloured hair, although that was underscored by natural red-streaks running through the hair, all highlighted by her icy-blue eyes, though the comforting, warm smile on her face calmed what would otherwise have been quiet a severe expression. She had opted for a jet-black jumpsuit for the wedding, underscored by a single pearl-necklace, pearl earrings and a single sapphire bracelet on her right hand which was also clasping a clutch tightly.

"My condolences Louis, your father was always very good to me," the girl greeted in German-accented English, "and Blair you looked…_delightful_," she said in a way that if you were innocent you might presume had been a simple hesitation to find the adjective in English though Blair identified it as a slight against her – she didn't rise to the bait though, "and I wanted to tell you both that since the Funeral is now over I will be ready to join the Court as soon as you see prudent."

"Ah of course," Louis said as though realisation had only dawned on him who the mystery girl was, "Blair this is Duchess Marie-Charlotte of Lannu-Waldung, before his death my Father was good friends with her father, Marie will serve as head of your Ladies-in-Waiting."

Blair nodded politely although she didn't understand why she should have to accept the girl who she was suddenly begin to find fault with and view rather less endearingly as she had a few moments before, wasn't she supposed to choose her own Ladies anyway? She didn't even know where Lannu-Waldung was…she was sure she wasn't aware of the Duchy – if it even existed anymore, she had had to navigate the minefield of Monarchies-in-exile, Monarchies that no longer existed and Monarchies that weren't Monarchies at all but virtual dictatorships over the entire two days of Funeral and day of the arrivals of Royals from across the globe. That wasn't even mentioning the world leaders, she had gotten the leaders of the Baltic States all confused and ended up insulting them all by talking in what little Russian she understood.

"It will be a delight to serve you, _m'lady_." Marie curtsied and Blair nearly spat out her water in what would have been the epitome of indignity – she doubted there was any sincerity in the Duchess's statement.

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"She knows about Eric and Damien," Serena said into the phone, careful to avoid saying anything incriminating on the phone, "about everything _they did_."

Chuck processed the information she'd imparted, "You're sure?"

"You were the one that said she had some big secret – besides targeting you would be too easy for her, she's already done it," Serena shrugged, "I guess she's going after Eric now…too cement her rule."

Chuck nodded, it made sense: Georgina had to prove she was back and that she still had balls, if taking down Eric was what it took she would do it in a heartbeat. He regretted involving Eric in his scheme and for even considering it, but, it should have been a simple matter had Georgina not connected the dots so easily between Eric, Chuck, the blackmail and the Wessex Hotels. Carlton Wessex wouldn't be made to drop the charges, he had nothing else to lose – the trial was going to happen whether they liked it or not, the only thing they could change was what charges Eric was actually facing. Chuck had taken most of the fall because he had known that it would be an easier thing to do, and it also helped that Bass Industries had always had a few Judges in their pocket for decades. Even if they didn't get a favourable judge that judge would be friends with judges who liked the fees that went into their accounts every week.

"What did Blair say?"

Serena eyed Chuck warily; she couldn't tell whether he was actually interested whether Blair had said anything on the subject or merely seeing whether or not Serena had passed along his messages to her on the subject. She had incidentally but she had ignored them, focusing upon Eric and Georgina more specifically, although with issues surrounding her and Louis and the Funeral she had been distracted on the subject.

"She said we should work on finding something on Georgina, to get her to back down – but that was always Blair's forte you know?" Serena sighed exasperatedly, "And besides I never wanted to raise things too much with Nate…I think trials and prison everything is still a sore topic with his Dad and everything."

"Who did Blair get to watch Georgina in the end? You never did say?"

"Juliet," Serena replied simply and Chuck whistled, clearly impressed, "I know, I didn't believe it either but Blair's confident so…I'll leave it up to her…I'll come by tomorrow okay?"

"See you then sis."

Serena reluctantly put the phone back on its holder and walked out of the prison, she had at times in her life felt so very estranged from Chuck that she never knew whether they would ever be close…she wouldn't have predicted even two years ago that they would be this close…but now they were like real siblings, watching out for one another. And attuned to one another – truth be told she was so very scared for Chuck, even with his confidence she couldn't be…she was frightened and scared off the future, and what it might hold.

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_The lord works in mysterious ways, although we'd never have foreseen this. No matter how hard you bury a secret, eventually everything comes to the surface, and looks as if __**Juliet **__is digging around in __**G**__'s past – at the born-again Christian Camp. Enjoy it while it lasts G, because we have a feeling that you reign of terror is about to be torn up,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl _

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Hope you liked Chapter 5,

Reviews and responses welcome as always,

Acrobat

X


	6. Chapter 6

**Gossip Girl**

_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

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_JULIET, JULIET WHERE FOR ART THOU?_

_**Juliet Sharp**__ returned in a blaze of glory, although now it looks as if the flame has faltered and blown out since we haven't seen her since she left to start digging up the dirt on __**G **__at her Christian Camp – but we wouldn't relax just yet G, __**S**__ was just spotted at the Waldorf-Astoria and we think it was a war-meeting. Our proof Upper East Siders? We haven't seen the minions milling about together since the Constance days, and from the looks on their faces we'd say war is on the way,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

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"And now you're trying to provoke her?" Nate raised an eyebrow in confusion – he couldn't decide whether Serena was trying to goad Georgina into revealing what she had so they could do damage control for definite or if she actually thought this might make Georgina back down. Georgina Sparks was many things but she wasn't a coward, and if her pride was being challenged like this he doubted whether she would respond too warmly toward it.

"Not provoke," Serena said, strolling out of her bedroom having changed into a pale-pink jumpsuit, from her more casual jeans and shirt-combo she'd been modelling before, she scanned herself in the mirror before running her fingers through her hair, hoping it might liven her blonde locks, "just…tempt into the open…and if having the Minions watching her every move helps do that then…I don't think it's a bad thing."

"How are you planning to take her down by the way – once she's revealed what she knows I mean?" Nate quizzed as he interlocked his hand with hers and pulled our out of her bedroom, towards the elevator, he looked toward but her crystal clear eyes had locked down – she wasn't going to reveal anything there.

She pressed the button, "You read Gossip Girl, Juliet is going to that Camp Blair sent her to…she'll find something out and then Georgina will go crashing down in flames."

"What if there isn't anything to find?" Nate pressed as they stepped inside the elevator.

Serena shook her head as though it wasn't possible there couldn't be anything, "It's Georgina." She gave him a look as though he shouldn't have even had to ask.

"Yeah, it's _Georgina_," he fixed her with a more questioning look, "did you ever consider that she might have covered her tracks pretty well, I mean she's disappeared of our radar for like six months at a time and we've never known where she is or anything about what happened: none of it followed her back here."

"We weren't looking then," Serena reminded as they stemmed out of the lift, moving swiftly through the lobby and ducking into the waiting limo as it tore away into the New York night, "Nate look…I'm touched that you care about me enough to not want me to do this but I have to…for Eric's sake."

"Yeah what about Eric?" he asked rhetorically, taking his hand away from hers, "Did you ever consider your little vendetta might be doing more harm than good Serena? You're making Georgina scared which makes her mad which makes her…unstable – what's stopping her going to a Police Station and telling them about Eric and Damien Serena?" he paused to allow that fact to sink in, "Nothing Serena, you're bluffing and I'm not sure your prepared to except the consequences."

Serena paused a few moments; taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Well at least I am doing something Nate, because as far as I can see you haven't done anything to help me – to help Eric or Chuck so far, have you even been to see him in prison?" Serena knew she'd hit Nate where it hurt when he didn't reply and just continued looking out of the tinted windows, casting his gaze skyward toward the towering skyscrapers as they moved further into Manhattan, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"-it's fine," Nate replied deferentially, "let's just get this stupid gala over and then we can talk."

.

"Do you mind?" Georgina asked, stirring her third Martini before downing the rest of it, she felt like she'd been cast as the Dictator with plotters all around, just waiting to pounce upon her at any moment – conspiracies twirling around her like an intricate spider web: except of course she had no followers to begin with, she was in hostile territory, not that the cream dress, shimmering metallic-silver jacket and hair-band were exactly intimidating.

"Not really, we're keeping tabs on you," Penelope Shafai cackled with her two more Junior minions, she was quite enjoying act as Blair's lieutenant on the ground, especially since that gave her dominion over her other Minions, though she wasn't enjoying being underneath Juliet's thumb, but since she'd left she'd moved silently into pole position, "whatever you think you know about Eric, whatever you want to do to Blair or to Chuck or to any of us Georgina you know you can't really do anything – you're the outsider here and we protect our own."

Georgina shrieked with malevolent laughter at this point, "Circling the wagons, cute, you know with the whole headband thing you're really quite sweet _Penelope_," the confident disposition of Penelope evaporated in an instant, something about Georgina's tone implied danger, like the warning colourings of a Hornet, warding Penelope off though she didn't dare move now that she'd made her move, "almost as sweet as the bill for your nose job and for your monthly liposuction sessions," Penelope's eyes visibly bulged, "so why don't you run along and try not to damage your nose, I hear they're extra sensitive in the first six months?" She turned back and watched the three girls scurry away, ordering a fourth Martini, her eyes flickered to her right and she felt a stab of peril jab into her stomach, she didn't dare sip at her drink as it arrived in case she spat it out.

"Nicely done," Juliet praised, she lifted the ornate Venetian mask – impersonation was becoming one of her greatest assets, in fact she'd waltzed across the Dancefloor with three different man just in case Georgina was watching, somehow she'd travelled under the radar of even the almighty, omnipresent Gossip Girl, "the whole plastic surgery bluff," Georgina raised an eyebrow momentarily intrigued before fright grabbed at her heart again – Juliet had seen right through her smokescreen, "well played. Just a shame I'm not bluffing," she produced an envelope on the Bar, "go on, open it."

Georgina opened it and briefly scanned the contents, "So you found him?"

"It was difficult," she said turning around on her stool to face the vast Gala behind them, "but then I had to go to your little Summer Camp to throw you off my track, travelling to Europe incognito isn't exactly easy, but it was all there to find Georgina, raunchy sex parties, gambling debts spiralling into the hundreds of thousands and of course there was the little case of planting drugs on someone and having them arrested."

"What are you going to do?" she quizzed, although she was almost sure she already knew.

Juliet offered her pearly white smile, "You're going to forget whatever you thought you knew about Eric Van Der Woodsen, you're going to leave this City and any claim you thought you had to the throne and you're never going to come back, do you understand?"

Georgina nodded, Juliet's smile broadened as she reached across and grabbed the Martini, sipped at it and then threw it over Georgina who screamed but rather than jumping into a catfight sprang up and slipped away from the Bar, down the staircase and skirted around the edge of the Dancefloor until she reached the other side of the ornate Ballroom, slipped up the stairs and out onto the street. She raised her hand to hail a Cab but found it dropped to her side and she turned, looking into the fiery eyes of a large, brawny, strongman.

"Oh hello." She greeted innocently and then turned and ran to her right, only to be stopped by another, near identical brute.

"Vladimir sends his regards," they said, sliding open the door of a black, tinted-windowed limousine and offering with their hands for her to get in, not they had a choice, their thick Russian accents laced with threat, Georgina ducked inside reluctantly, "he has missed you so very much Tatiana…or should we say Georgina?"

She looked them into the eyes, she allowed her imposed fear to subside, after all she really had nothing to fear, "I'm so glad that you came when you did, unfortunately a little late for me to avoid getting drink sprayed over me – do you have my son?"

There was a cry from the front seat and Georgina smiled with triumph, "And my husband?"

"The papers were left at your Apartment; all he need do is sign them."

Georgina nodded approvingly, her little gambit had worked, now all she had to do was see if Gossip Girl would take the bait and she could slip away into the night for a little while, she had known that Juliet girl was good but she hadn't uncovered anything that you couldn't find out with a magnifying glass and a hacker at your side. She was as good as free, to meddle as she saw fit. Although New York wasn't her priority, that lay halfway around the world from her. The best way to ensure that she remained on top was to leave dramatically, and what was more dramatic than being kidnapped by the Russian mafia?

.

_We're fairly sure __**G**__, had her baby shower a long time ago, but looks as if she got a different kind of shower – a Martini one to be exact – from __**Juliet**__, a damsel in disguise at the Charity Gala for Endangered Emus. But when handed her marching orders G met with the Mafia – and as the brutes bundled her into the back of an unmarked car we're left wondering whether this is fact or fiction. We don't like to be a conduit for the crazed so we advise caution when considering G's kidnapping. And as for __**S **__& __**N**__ looks as if there's a storm on the horizon, and we think it's about to make landfall. _

.

Somehow she had known that the talking couldn't and wouldn't wait for them…they would have to confront this bridge between them now, and cross it – if that were possible, and get over the issue between them. She shouldn't have raised Nate's distance from Chuck, and Eric, and her but she had to – they were a couple, weren't they meant to spend time together, to understand one another, to be on the same wavelength? Lately she felt like it was the start of College all over again and she was being shut out from Nate's life. Hadn't she made amends already?

"You're doing a lot of thinking," he murmured sipping at his Scotch, she put her Martini glass back on the bar, she'd been fiddling with it for long enough avoiding his gaze, "do we…I mean are we…do I still have a shot with you? Because back there in the car it looked as if you'd already made up your mind Serena. I know I haven't talked to you as much-"

"-as much?" She interjected, "Nate I've hardly seen you, you're meant to be helping me, you're meant to be my rock…instead you're just…somewhere else every time I've needed you or when I've seen you we never discuss the difficult stuff, after Paris you said we'd get involved, we'd help everyone – Chuck, Eric, Blair – was that just words because you were enjoying the vacation? I mean is that all we are, a vacation romance or something?"

"No," he said quickly, "at least I don't want us to be – look prisons aren't difficult places for me, I've been there with my Dad so I know what it's like to visit someone…but honestly I don't whether my seeing Chuck would do more harm than good Serena, he's already pretty down, seeing that I'm outside, on the opposite side of a glass-wall talking into a telephone – that makes it real to him, you might see him as a realist, as cool and collected – but I know him a hell of a lot better. He's scared Serena, really scared."

"And having his best friend there to support him wouldn't help?" she quizzed sarcastically.

"So maybe I was being stupid-"

"-yeah you were," she cut him off, "but it's behind us…look you need to see Chuck and soon, because if the next time you see him is his trial then I don't know if he'll ever forgive you. Look I'm gonna go and speak to Juliet," she had sighted the auburn-blonde-haired girl that had once been the bane of her existence on the Dancefloor networking, something's never changed, "if you go now you might get to see him tonight." She pecked Nate lightly on his lips and then left him in her wake, she could've walked out of their relationship there and then but that wouldn't solve anything, and she had done a lot of awful things in her life, things that should've given Nate cause to reconsider their relationship and he never had. She could at least be lenient. She reached Juliet and the two embraced, somewhat awkwardly in a hug.

"Long time no see," Serena smiled at her, "how've you been – how was studying in Europe?"

Juliet laughed, "Well I know vacation's in Europe are kind of your speciality but I got…really immersed in the culture in Berlin actually…even picked up a little of the language, and I followed how things panned out here once I'd left…you and Ben…and then…other relationships, with Gossip Girl it's like I never really left. It is nice to be back in the City though."

"Speaking of which did you see the Gossip Girl blast, about Georgina – faking a kidnapping?"

"That was no fake," Juliet smiled a pearly white devilish smile, a twinkle in her eye, "they work for a radical Christian Camp, when I told her parents that their daughter was out of control and wreaking havoc suddenly they seemed to think she needed to go for her own good, right now they're playing along with her little Russian routine. I also didn't tell her the dirt that I really dug up on her, I found her false trail but it seemed too good to be true. If you want to know her real secret-"

"-I don't," Serena interjected and the two girls laughed, "I'm just glad that Eric's safe…or safer…I don't know how to thank you?"

"Just give me a second chance," Juliet stated simply, "I want to make things right."

.

_When your out of your element and fighting against the tide you have a choice, you can sink or you can swim, but when swimming upstream we advise caution – there may be rocks or other obstacles in the stream, and there may at some point be a branch extended to you, offering you help and safety. Be wary of that branch, because as likely as it is to be strong and resolute, it is also likely to snap and allow you to be swept away by the oncoming torrent. _

.

It was the dress that she'd worn to what had been meant to be their first real date, after the disastrous date which had preceded it and shown Blair at her very best. It was scarlet emphasizing her seductive side but it allowed her pale tones to glow, offsetting her chestnut coloured her with the glossy, hazel-coloured highlights she'd had applied by a special stylist she'd flown in from Paris – only the best for a Princess after all – and paired with the simple black strappy-heels the ensemble made her look effortlessly beautiful. That was what she had been going for after all. She strolled confidently to the top of the stair case and then paused, turning as Marie-Charlotte approached, dressed in a shockingly green minidress coupled with a pair of last season Manolos. The entire ensemble was…in a word…_hideous_. Surely Louis couldn't expect her to endure this as one of her Ladies-in-waiting?

And as for its combination with that hair…she would have to ensure that she had it bleached and dyed a better colour. Marie-Charlotte fixed her with an icy, clearly forced-grin, Blair responded in kind – offering only the smallest of smiles though hers was sincere, she wasn't going to give the girl any reason to discredit her in front of the entire Royal Court, who were waiting downstairs, expecting her imminent arrival. She had struggled to fit into the dress but she had managed it, it might be one of the last times she would be seen dressed flatteringly in public, she wanted to go out with a bang.

"Red, it's a beautiful colour Blair," Marie greeted in her hard tones, "the colour of blood."

"Yes it is," Blair replied absent-mindedly casting her gaze down to the bottom of the sweeping staircase, it was grand, Edwardian she supposed, it was as though she were Kate Winslet in the scene from _Titanic_ looking down from the top of the staircase, she would sweep down it with more grace and better hair than Kate Winslet, but the movie metaphor fitted in that circumstance, "do you know, I think that I'm going to choose my own Ladies-in-waiting, I might be a nobody but my fiancé is the Prince of Monaco, and I hear around here although, being such a _tourist_," she had known that that was how some elements of the Court referred to her, "I can't be sure I think he has some kind of influence around here?"

"If you weren't pregnant Blair," Marie smiled now and Blair felt a tingling of panic at the back of her head, had she misjudged her, "Louis wouldn't be marrying you, he knows about your sordid affair with Chuck Bass – so does the entire Court, he's only taking you back for that baby, if you were to lose the baby Blair you would be out before you even knew what was happening."

Blair squared up to her confidently, "And how am I going to lose it?"

Marie paused a moment uncertainly and then lunged forward, pushing Blair back first off the top of the stairs, her head hit the stair first as her body contorted, flipping over her head as darkness ripped her out of reality and she tumbled for what seemed like eternity.

.

_A Princess pushed, an Evil Queen extinguished and two leggy Ladies of the Upper East Side making amends. We hear __**G**__ was last seen being dragged kicking and screaming into a Christian Camp and __**S**__ and __**J**__ were spotted drinking Martinis at the Palace like old friends, although what we're most worried about is what happened to our Queen __**B**__? Did she fall or did a jealous courtier try to do her in?_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl _

.

Hope you liked Chapter 6,

Reviews and responses welcome and appreciated,

Acrobat

X


	7. Chapter 7

**Gossip Girl**

_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

.

_MONACO MURDER MYSTERY?_

_We know __**B**__ loves a classic but we didn't think she'd cast herself in an Agatha Christie novel. Of course she isn't actually dead, just in hospital, but we hear that somebody pushed her, and if we're looking for suspects in our experience she should search for someone shifty. Meanwhile looks as if __**S**__ and __**N **__have reconciled irreconcilable differences although as we Upper East Siders know those two are like a pendulum one way swinging to head-over-heels-love and the next to horrific heartache hotel. And as for __**Chuck Bass**_, _alas looks as if this Bass has been netted by the Court's, and they cast their net pretty wide too because little __**E**__ got caught up too. Trying times call for trying harder, and thank goodness we have __**Juliet**__ to keep everything in order, she's sent __**G **__to Jesus Jail, and has whipped the __**Minions**__ back into order, although we're left wondering what she gets out of all this? She might like the City, she might even love New York but once you have a taste of power we find you can't seem to let go,_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.

In a Hospital you should feel safe, secure and as if you are far from harm. Unfortunately Blair Waldorf felt nothing like that, she didn't have her trademark composure – that had been rudely shaken after she'd been pushed down the stairs by an upstart from a Germanic principality that she was quite certain she and everyone else on the Upper East Side had never heard of – despite taking Geography AP she wasn't even sure where…wherever it was Marie-Charlotte came from was, except that it was in Europe and probably entirely subsumed by Germany or Austria or Switzerland or any number of countries that had Germanic influences, for all she knew it might even be north of Monaco in Alsace or one of the other border provinces.

She turned her head and felt a stab of panic hear heart-rate shooting up suddenly on the monitor which was watching over both her and her unborn child, Blair wasn't sure whether she or the baby or both were the target of the push. All she knew was that the girl sat quite innocently to her right on a chair, quietly knitting (although Blair couldn't figure out why the girl was knitting, it wasn't as if anyone would be fooled by her knitting, maybe she was planning to stab Blair with one of the needles) had tried to kill her and had very nearly succeeded had it not been for the grace with which Blair had conducted herself in the fall she might be dead, somehow she had remained controlled and poised even on the cusp of death.

"Hello Blair," Marie-Charlotte greeted in her unusually soft Germanic-spiced accent, "how are you feeling? I hope you are well – that fall was such a terrible accident, you just slipped on that water at the top of the stairs while we were talking, just think you might have broken your neck or lost the baby: that would have been such a tragedy."

"What do you want," Blair retorted indignantly, "attempt two on my life? Do I qualify for being assassinated yet or is it still murder if the psychopath is a Royal and I'm just the fiancé of the Prince of Monaco?" Blair knew that would set Marie-Charlotte's blood-boiling, "Because we are going to be married Marie, me and Louis, in a Church, with the world's media focused entirely upon us – and I'm going to make damn sure I get more than 2 Billion viewers worldwide, the entire planet is going to come together to see me walk down the aisle in a stunning dress and marry the most eligible bachelor in the world. And you're going to have a front-row seat as my Lady-in-Waiting and see me marry him, and then I'll have you quietly packed of to Lichtenstein or whatever insignificant little pathetic palace you came from, and you'll fade into oblivion."

"I'm glad to hear you're feeling better," she said as if she hadn't even heard the conversation although Blair knew her words had landed hard upon her, it was more perfect than she could have hoped for, "please be assured that my condolences are with you for what has happened."

.

"So you didn't fly to be at Blair's side because…?" Lily asked as she perused a rack of dresses that had been brought to the Apartment specially – she knew exactly what kind of look she wanted for her attendance of an upcoming Society Ball: her first real one since she had ended her House Arrest and she had to admit she was excited, she wanted something that didn't explicitly state that she was back loud and proudly, but one that would also inform those deluded fools that had tried to keep her seat warm for her while she was gone that she was back and would quietly resume all her roles.

"Because," Serena sighed, it wasn't as if she was actively avoiding flying to be at her friend's side, "Dorota told me that Blair thinks my classes at Colombia are more important, she wants me to concentrate on focusing upon the issues between myself and Nate and…and she's already got enough people waiting on her…between Eleanor, Cyrus and her Dad…she has enough New York Society…basically I think she doesn't want me there in case it reminds people in all the wrong places just where she came from."

"Oh," Lily said soothingly, in that very supportive motherly way that Serena knew a little too well for someone that was only in their Second Year of College, "darling I'm sure it isn't that – Blair is proud of where she came from and I doubt that she'd shut you out for something as petty as ensuring her social advancement at Court…but maybe she makes some good points – how are your classes at Colombia?"

College. Serena's least favourite topic. It was a world away from the constrictions and dreariness of Constance, that was for sure, but somehow she felt as if she should have been challenged more…as if she should be not exactly doing worse in classes but fighting to stay on top…something she'd never had to do. If she was being brutally honest she'd just breezed through High School where others had worked themselves to the bone in order to maintain an A average. Serena had barely kept to a B average and she'd wound up at one of the best Colleges in the Country.

"Mind-numbing," she murmured, "okay maybe it's not _that bad_," she said smiling awkwardly at her mother who had given her a, you're not being honest are you look, "it just doesn't feel the same without Blair…Juliet's in one of my classes though so that's pretty cool," Lily gave her a sceptical look, "so she might have spent half of last year trying to ruin my life because she thought I ruined her brother's life and then driven a massive wedge between us…it's water under the bridge, I mean aren't things better now anyway?"

"Of course they are," Lily scoffed, laughing at the same time, "well for the record I think that Nathaniel is the perfect gentleman and I would be very pleased to see you two…take things further this time than you did last time."

"Mom," Serena said, mock-hitting her on the arm and giggling like a teenage Schoolgirl, "I doubt that marriage is really on the horizon for either of us…how are you dealing with what happened with Carol anyway…we haven't talked about that in a while?"

It was as though Serena had caused the ground to open up and swallow Lily whole, she was frozen before her and suddenly her composure was broken, she wasn't crying, she wasn't angry she just seemed off balance, uncertain – as though she was teetering on the precipice of a bottomless chasm and she wasn't sure whether she might better off at the bottom of it in pieces than she was whole on the brink of destruction.

"I'm in the process of acknowledging something that I have been deliberately avoiding since I was a teenager Serena," she said, dabbing at her eye to swat away a rebellious tear that had somehow broken her complete freeze on emotion or admitting she had them, "that my sister is a manipulative, lying bitch who has never and will never like me nor will she acknowledge what a hypocrisy her life has become. I'm not exactly a Saint Serena and I will never pretend to be that, nor will I pretend to be the perfect mother but your Aunt Carol…she got everything that is bad about our family and just amplified it, and as for your Grandmother," Lily laughed, an odd contrast to her melancholy disposition, "she's writing Carol and Charlie out of her will Serena, when she dies everything will go to me, you and Eric."

Serena froze, "Wait Charlie too?"

Lily nodded, "She can't be sure that Carol won't simply funnel the money into an account of her own choice, let's just…I think…Serena we have to move away from Carol and Charlie now, forget about them if that's the only way that you can accept what is happening, because they do not want to be a part of our family and the way that Carol is acting…she doesn't get to play both sides of the coin Serena, she can't be distant and at the same time close to us."

"Carol I understand but Charlie…shouldn't we be reaching out to her?" Serena quizzed.

"No," Lily replied more definitely before, "Serena I would appreciate it if for me you stopped talking about this…we have to move forward, Eric is going before a Court in a few days…with luck I can get him out on parole but…I got a call from the Admissions Tutor this morning…they're revoking his place Serena. So I need you to not focus on some distant relations who don't care about you and I need you to focus on our family, understood?"

Somehow Serena found herself lulled into nodding.

.

"So you're facing trial for-"

"-conspiracy to blackmail." Eric finished.

"And I'm-"

"-going for your first fashion job interview at Dianne Von Furstenberg," Jenny gave him a scornful look, "sorry DVF, I forgot you've gone all high fashion on me." He winked mischievously and she hit him playfully on his arm, locking hers with his as they strolled aimlessly through Central Park, enjoying the warm fall afternoon.

Jenny paused and looked him straight in the eyes.

"You shouldn't worry E, those jurors are gonna see that you're completely innocent and you'll walk away, worst case picking up trash off the street for a couple of months and then back to," she paused, she'd been about to say College and she bit her lip, Eric had definitely heard her pause, "and then you head _on to_ even better things."

Though she didn't like to admit it she was worried about him and concerned for his well-being…and it went above and beyond the step-sisterly role, not that she was criticizing Serena…Serena was trying to be the perfect daughter, granddaughter, niece, best-friend and step-sister for just about everyone…if Jenny took on Eric and making sure he was doing fine as her responsibility she might go someway toward bridging the vast gulf between the two of them that she readily acknowledged she had invested a great deal of time in widening and inflaming. She should be strong and positive but the doubt within her was sapping at her resolve, sapping at her belief in her resolve that Eric would pull through this trial and come out the other side. She didn't give a crap about what happened to Chuck, he'd pulled Eric into this ridiculous scheme whether Eric realized it or not and that had somehow tainted Eric, though she couldn't define how. This was not Eric's fault in the slightest. This was completely on _Chuck_.

Eric shrugged and looked up the sun, hanging lazily in the sky, streams of light slicing through spaces in the branches and the leaves casting silhouettes of the big, leafy trees on the ground, "I think that's what I'm going to miss the most, the fresh air…cooped up in prison."

"You are not going to prison," Jenny dismissed definitively, "your Mom didn't and she…basically lied to a Court…all you did was…make out with someone's son – and he was very cute…he just happened to be married…and the Court will realize how innocent it was and that it was love…and then Chuck will go to jail and we'll spend all our time together…well…when you come back for the holidays…I mean if you do I guess…"

Eric laughed at that, "You know nothing would keep me from the lights of the Upper East Side at Christmas or for New Year," he was grinning for the first time in days, showing real joy instead of a flicker of happiness extinguished between a torrent of sadness and foreboding, "but Jenny you know that it wasn't completely innocent…I mean I was doing it to trap him at first…I just fell in love along the way. And now I'm paying for my sins…whatever happens…it will be the right thing. Would you come see me?"

"Are you kidding? No I hate orange clothes," Jenny smirked mischievously this time, "fine I'll come see you…might give me some tips on how not to design jumpsuits…or orange anything…not that I ever would! I'm sure that'll go down a treat with the Socialites working at the Office…an entire collection based on…_prison chique_!"

"Are you prepared if it happens…I mean you have accepted I might go away right?" Eric quizzed, entirely serious now as they stopped their progress again, in the shade of a vast, ancient emerald-leaved evergreen tree.

Jenny looked anywhere but directly into his eyes, "Sure."

"Jenny you know that I might be going to prison…they have a pretty good case to put me there anyway you know?"

"Well they can't E…they can't...I…I won't let them."

Eric cupped her hands in his and looked away from her, towards the superstructure of Manhattan in the distance, the rising spear-shaped towers streaking for the sky, "We've been friends and then fallen out so many times now…I just…if things don't go the way we want Jenny you have to be careful about hanging around with me…dirt rubs off easily here…basically…just maybe you shouldn't come see me in Prison."

"You aren't going to prison," she said indignantly and then caught sight of his look, he looked disappointed, "but," he looked more contented now, "if somehow they end up finding you guilty then I don't give a crap about what anyone thinks Eric, you're my step-brother and more importantly you're my best-friend, I'm not gonna forget about you just to try and get further in New York. I've tried to please the Upper East Side for too long, now I'm just gonna do what I want, you understand?"

.

_Anywhere else coffee shared between friends is a simple, innocent procedure. On the Upper East Side it's anything but – there are coffee dates about forming allegiances, coffee dates about creating conspiracies or masterminding marriages, although we think that the coffee shared between __**S**__ and __**Juliet**__ must have gone cold, or maybe that's just the atmosphere?_

.

"Thank you for getting rid of Georgina…with all my family drama I just…needed time to think, otherwise I'd have taken her out myself…I have a lot of history of fighting with Georgina…and eventually winning…somehow," Serena paused and giggled, "I'm rambling aren't I?"

"A little bit," Juliet replied smirking, she sipped from her enormous coffee mug, she cast her head up to look around the coffee shop, "it just feels so strange to be back in New York after a little time away…sometimes you forget that there's a world beyond Manhattan…or at least I used to."

"Yeah I guess we have our own little world here," Serena said musing over so many things at the same time that it almost made her head hurt, "so you said you had things to discuss?"

"I did didn't I?" Juliet asked rhetorically smiling. "Manhattan does seem really small after you really see the world…or at least some of it…like I did in Europe or you did…well whenever you go on a Vacation. But why have the world when you can dominate the only place that really matters? I mean with the access I have as Queen I can have any position I want in the City, meet all the right people and open up channels of communication with the most important people in Society, in short I'd be pretty much set if I just stayed in Manhattan and stayed on the throne."

Serena laughed uncertainly, unsure where Juliet was going with this faintly dictatorial-sounding rant, "I'm not sure what B would have to say about that."

"The beauty of that Serena is that Blair is in Monaco, and whether you've come to accept it or not she's going to stay there and someone's going to have to take over the throne," Juliet smiled in a sweet but menacing fashion, "she'll leave you behind once she's having dinner with the French President one night, the Prince of Dubai the next or partying at Polo with the Princesses of the world, she's going to make you and everyone else here insignificant very quickly. I mean what's the point of being a Society Heiress in New York, when you can be a Royal Princess on the world stage?"

Serena put her coffee down and frowned, "Where are you going with this?"

"If I want to be Queen I have to move quickly," Juliet said and suddenly it dawned upon Serena, she was playing witness to a coup, as yet bloodless though she doubted it would be long before Juliet drew out her knives, "admittedly persuading the little Minions to back me was difficult but then I looked into their personal lives and well…you Upper East Siders have a tendency to hang dirty laundry out to dry – Dan's expose was just the tip of the iceberg. Only problem with you Serena was that I wasn't sure exactly how to get the dirt on you.

"And then it occurred to me once Blair offered me the position and I decided I wanted the throne for myself, the only way to get to know Serena is to play friend to her, and if that fails make something up – it isn't as if anyone's going to disprove the fact is it?"

"What did you do?" Serena asked, feeling her rage rising, "Juliet, my brother is awaiting trial, so is my stepbrother, my best friend was nearly murdered, my boyfriend and I are…in a rough patch and we don't know how to get out of it, Dan is living like a hermit in Brooklyn…and you pick now of all times to stage a Palace coup?"

"Don't you remember," she said picking up her purse and standing up primly, "I'm sure I told you my timing is impeccable?"

.

_Russia was found ripe for revolution in the midst of a war, so what better time to sneak up on __**S**__ than when she's embattled against the bad, the very bad and the ugly – by which we mean the state of her family affairs? When __**Julius Caesar**__ made powerful enemies he wound up dead, stabbed in the back. Let's hope that the letter is the only coincidence __**Juliet**__…or let's not…after all the only thing we love more than the cause of the conflict, is the course of the war,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl _

.

Hope you liked Chapter 7,

Reviews and responses welcomed and appreciated!

Chapter 8 up soonish,

Acrobat

X


	8. Chapter 8

**Gossip Girl**

_Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. _

.

_ON THE TRAIL FOR THE TRIAL?_

_In law a trial is when parties in a dispute come together to have it resolved by a higher authority, and in many ways it reflects the way we Upper East Siders have conducted ourselves for generations – there is always a resolute Queen __**B**__, her loyal underlings and the various other minor players in the grand game of Manhattan elite politics. However today's lethal game of blackmail and conspiracy has come to an end because the dispute has been taking out of the Queen's hands – not that she could do anything anyway, she's lying in a hospital bed half way around the world while our very own Wallis Simpson – alias __**Juliet Sharp **__eyes up the crown. That's right Upper East Siders, the Upper East Side's biggest badass __**Chuck Bass**__ and our brightest baby brother of a big thing __**E**__ are coming to trial today, and looks as if most of New York High Society has turn out to support – or sneer for them, and I'm getting a ringside seat for a piece of the action,_

_You know you love me,_

_Xoxo Gossip Girl_

.

Questions just seemed to float past him as he responded only mildly distractedly to the questions of the prosecution…somehow Eric didn't know how he'd ended up on the stand…looking at a choice between prison and freedom for something that had started out as a harmless kiss. Part of him should have blamed Chuck for manipulating him, but the worst part was that Eric couldn't say that his good spirit had somehow been corrupted by Chuck, but he couldn't even pretend that was true anymore. The truth was that he'd been corrupted by the allure of it all, being in the Gossip Girl glare, being one of the premier socialites on the Upper East Side…and now he'd over extended himself and been rebuked for it by some greater celestial entity.

"It was love…at least it was eventually…at first I was just carried away by the adrenaline…by the fun of it all…and it seemed so easy, living a lie, but then it became so much more than that and I'm just…just sorry that it ended the way it did. It should never have gone that far." He had been only dimly aware of lawyers coaching him on what to say, he was telling the truth as best as he could recount it and that would have to pacify everyone…because he couldn't deal with the furore of the media spotlight anymore, for a moment he thought that the peace of a cell might actually be quite an enjoyable way to spend some time on himself.

His mother hadn't broken the news that he wasn't going to College but he knew any self-respecting Ivy League School would have done it, no amount of social connections would help him now…he had ruined his reputation and probably smeared his mother's just as she pulled out of what had for a few months seemed like a terminal decline in her own popularity and prestige on the Upper East Side. At least she had reasserted her domination over others such as a resurgent Anne Archibald before Eric had turned their world upside down.

"Yes I knew what I was doing…for Mr Bass…I knew that the point of the relationship was in the first place to engineer a relationship with a married man in order to blackmail his father…for what purpose I didn't know…I just knew that Chuck…sorry…Mr Bass needed a favour and I helped him out."

The wave of relief washing over him as he could finally step down from the stand was unbelievable, he had stood in front of every single family of consequence on the Upper East Side and now they would paint him into the picture he had just painted of himself before the Court…the painting of someone who would ruthlessly betray someone's confidence – even someone they lost. The most disturbing part he found was that most of the people in the Court Room around him shared those traits they just hadn't been exposed yet. Only the stupid ones amongst them got exposed – which was how he had ended up on the wrong side of the Court Room.

This was hell.

And he was imploding within it.

.

_Poor __**E**__, spotted, strained and stressed standing outside the Court House – we don't want to make things worse E, but it must be even worse knowing you aren't even the main attraction – the appetizing dish that has everyone licking their lips is __**Bass-avant-le-jury**__. _

.

"So what you're saying is Mr Bass, you set out to blackmail the Wessex family without Mr Van Der Woodsen's knowledge of your intentions?" If it had been a few years ago Chuck would've looked at the middle-class legal professional cross-examining him with scorn, now Chuck merely saw a man trying to do his job and seeming not to enjoy it all that much. Of course much of the old Chuck had played a hand in the ridiculous gambit to begin with…Chuck had always harboured a passion for the gamble – and if he'd pulled this game off he would have been several strategic hotels up and his major competitor's would probably have been bust. Now he was fighting for his liberty – but that didn't mean that he was leaving the new Chuck behind, he was going to see to it that Eric walked free if it was the last thing he did, even if Eric felt entirely betrayed and hurt by what Chuck said. Solidarity was a nice touch, but not when it was being exercised in stupidity – Eric couldn't take prison, Chuck probably couldn't either but he had a better chance than Eric: that was for sure.

"Exactly, Eric…has become very attached to me as a brother, but he think he's also a little insulted that I didn't…let him in on the real plan," the prosecutor nodded, "the truth is that I orchestrated the entire thing, Eric is simply…concerned with making himself not seem the idiot that he unfortunately is," he could tell that would hurt Eric but if it saved him it was a small price to pay, "I acted alone in the blackmail and simply abused Eric's relationship with Carlton Wessex for my own ends – Eric didn't become intentionally involved, and in fact he didn't become aware of the fact of the blackmail until it emerged in the media – just like everyone else."

"So you're saying your Step-Brother has lied in front of the entire Court?"

_That_ question was something he should've anticipated but typically he hadn't had the foresight to prepare for that fact – the question was how to respond, Eric hadn't actually lied, in fact he'd told the complete truth, however for all intents and purposes it had to seem that Eric had lied, which then left the question of if he had lied how did Chuck ensure he didn't get convicted for that in addition. Then it dawned upon him, Eric acting out he could relate to his own influence over Eric – however non-existent that was. Though admittedly he had tried to change his image over the past few years, he was sure he could play upon the residual image of the drug-addled, heavy-drinking playboy reputation in this instance.

"Your honours, I'm _Chuck Bass_," he noted that some people sitting in the gallery sat up at that point, "if Eric lied in front of you I can put it down to my influence over him, the reason that my Hotel is a success is because, not to sound arrogant but everyone wants to live the _Chuck Bass Experience_. It doesn't make an excuse for the fact he lied, that was wrong – but clearly there's an issue of imitation here, his sins are by default mine are they not?"

He funnelled out most of the static of the Court, they didn't matter to him, he might have appeared strong to everyone, and something about that was his desire to see Eric acquitted of something that though he was complicit was not directly his fault – it was driving him forward, but also it was the notion that he knew that Blair was lost. She had chosen Louis – as he had known she would – and it was heartbreaking that they were finally apart, but he had accepted that and decided to move on from the issue. He passed through the Courts and back to the Waiting Room and then paused as he finally set eyes on a friendly face.

"Nathaniel," he greeted in mild surprise, he extended his hand and Nate offered his, they shook in that tight, friendly, amicable way that they always had, "it's excellent to see you, where you watching? I didn't see you up there."

"Well…honestly no I wasn't…I haven't really been here because I've seen a little too much of the Courts and of Prison in general…which is why I've been avoiding you," he admitted sincerely looking more than a little ashamed, "but I'm here now for you man…and I'm sorry that I haven't been here sooner…I'm your best friend I should've been here…it's just taken me a while to realize that."

"Better late than never." Chuck said, grinning a little at his friend, "Although if it works I think this might be a short lived renewal of friendship."

.

"Just be frank with us, what is the Jury's mood – I mean do you know which way they're going to go on the case yet?" Lily enquired tenaciously from the other side of the table from her lawyer, she'd ensured Eric had the best legal team in Manhattan, she just had to hope that their extortionate fees would be worth it and she would be able to get her son home in one piece.

"There's good news, and…there's bad news," the lawyer murmured slowly, "he isn't going to be convicted of conspiracy to commit blackmail but…certain…other charge have come to light in the Court Room, owing to his admission to the Ostroff Centre as a minor and due to his association with a…a known Drug Dealer…he's being sent to an Institute outside the City for rehabilitation and then he will receive a 12-month suspended sentence."

"Wait, Eric isn't-"

"-thank you for all you've done," Lily said, ignoring her daughter's objections, the lawyer nodded and stood up to leave them together in the room, "Serena don't you dare complain, at least this way he won't spending time in Jail for what he did and you can visit him whenever you like – I honestly do not see the negative in this situation."

"Oh my god," Serena said realisation dawning upon her, "you did this didn't you? What did you do Mom? Tell them that Eric was some kind of unstable lunatic, that he needed help and this was just him acting out?" Lily didn't deny it and Serena felt her rage rising within her, "He would have been acquitted of these charges, Blair brought Juliet here to get rid of Georgina who was threatening to reveal this information to the Court…and you told them didn't you Mom? What you slipped someone a few hundred dollars to tip the Jury off and sway them in favour of a rehab conviction?"

Eric stood up abruptly and headed for the door, "Eric, Eric wait." Lily said rising and then she turned back to regard Serena, "For the record I didn't say a word to the Court Serena, but thank goodness somebody did because if they hadn't Eric would be going to prison today, so you just dwell upon that Serena while I go and try and calm your brother down."

Serena let her mother leave and threw her head back looking at the ceiling of the room, trying not to vent her anger by smashing something, she turned her dead as the door opened and smiled awkwardly at Nate as he slipped into the room, hopefully they could move past their differences between them, or maybe it was fate's way of telling her that they should move along from one another? Or was that just her getting afraid because she might be about to commit to something she would have regretted?

"I think your Grandfather's here," Serena murmured awkwardly – great, she'd talked family, a definite sign they didn't have much to talk about other than arguing, "you finally saw Chuck then?"

Nate nodded calmly, "He seems…calm about everything, we aren't okay are we?" The bluntness of the question had caught her off guard but clearly Nate had seen the warning signs too, the fight at the Gala, the temporary make-up – which always happened before the inevitable collapse of a relationship, "Didn't think so."

"I really love you Nate…I'm wondering whether everything going on in my life is just…colouring things…I mean how many times have we tried and failed at a relationship?" He shrugged, she laughed weakly, "I think it's either time we cut our losses or time that we took things…more seriously, time that we you know…either decided that this is the relationship of our lives or…settle down to being friends…sorry I'm not making too much sense am I? I just…I'm…someone told the Court about Eric and the Ostroff Centre…and Damien…so he's being sent to Rehab instead of given a sentence."

"Your Mom?" Nate asked slipping into the seat opposite her.

"She swears it was someone else."

"Chuck," Nate murmured aloud and everything slotted into place suddenly, "he was talking about how much he cares about you and Eric and Lily, he thought that it was better to keep Eric out and himself in, even if meant turning Eric into this hopeless…Chuck adoring wannabe. I think since Blair moved to Monaco more permanently he's…given up Serena, I really do…he's signed the Empire and the Brooklyn Hotel over to Lily…he's ready to go to jail."

"We should go watch," Serena mused, "he'll be going into trial."

"What are we doing about _us_?" Nate quizzed.

Serena extended her hand to him, "We're going to watch one of our bestfriends go to Jail, and then we're going to take a long walk, have a meal at a ridiculously expensive, indulgent restaurant, get very drunk and sleep together Nate, and then in the morning, well I'll let you plan that part of the day." He nodded, grinning at her as they strolled along the corridor to the Court Room, unsure of exactly how to proceed with one another.

.

"William," Serena greeted, pecking Nate's grandfather on the chair as she settled into the seat next to him in the gallery, "I wish we could meet each other under better circumstances."

"Not at all," he replied graciously – Nate's grandfather was nothing if not courteous, "glad to see that Nathaniel and you are still such good friends, I wish I could have done something to help Charles for you and your mother Serena, I suppose it just remains in the hands of the Courts now." Serena nodded politely, looking around to spot Nate, he'd run to the bathroom and told her to find them seats, she'd chosen next to his grandfather, she looked around the gallery, "I told William and Maureen it would be better for them to stay away but I would pass on their regards." And he was also acutely aware of how to manage a situation, she also liked that he favoured Nate over Tripp. Nate slipped into his seat beside her and pecked her on the cheek for encouragement. Chuck was brought onto the stand and Serena saw the Judge assume his position on his chair. She let the next few moments fade through her consciousness contented for the inevitable "guilty" verdict. And then she heard something that shook her out of her impervious cocoon, one word reverberating around the room, "innocent." Serena frowned, somehow it didn't seem real, it couldn't be real.

.

_Looks as if the __**C-Bass**__ is off the menu Upper East Siders, and as for __**E**__, he should count himself lucky – all he has to do is spend some time in rehab, at least it's a change from the Ostroff Centre right, E?_

.

"I saw the news," Blair murmured from her lounger, looking out across Monaco Bay at the yachts arranged, competing for size and standing with one another in the small space of cerulean-coloured sea water, "do you think Chuck paid the Jury?"

"No," Serena replied reproachfully into the phone, "well maybe, I'm not even sure how he did it B…everything looked…so bleak for such a long time in there…and now well he's…free again…and everything's back to normal now. I mean I'm with Nate, you're marrying Louis and having his baby…sorry his _twins_, I mean isn't this what we always wanted? The only thing that would make this day better would be…I don't know what would make this day better?"

Blair shrugged, "I'm not sure, anyway I'm afraid I'm going to have to love you but leave you…I need to get ready for this Dinner Party that the Countess of Ultzman is hosting tonight at her Mansion, surprisingly having your arm in a sling makes looking elegant hard, even for me, love you S," Blair hung up the phone and turned toward Dorota who was waiting at the periphery of the balcony, "Dorota get my dress ready for Dinner," Dorota nodded and left her alone, Blair hammered the number into her phone, "I have to admit as unlike a port of call as you were in the storm you really pulled through, and I can't believe you caved so easily when I threatened your career, corruption is such Childs play, I can't say it's been a pleasure but perhaps you could attend my Wedding…or perhaps you should just send a gift, I'd rather save you the trip."

.

"How are you feeling," Serena asked, emerging onto the balcony outside Chuck's suite, looking straight out onto the City, she knew exactly where to find him when he was trying to clear his head, and this was one of those times, "knowing that you're a free man?"

"I thought I'd feel different but I don't, life goes on," Chuck laughed, "I still have a Hotel to build and an Empire to create, how are things with Nate? Are you two finally back on together?"

"Possibly," Serena said playfully flashing the glittering ring on her finger at him, she grinned, "or _definitely_, we're…we're getting married."

Chuck's eyes didn't bulge with surprise but his smile suggested that he was both pleased for her and a little amused he hadn't predicted that outcome, "I'm happy for you, I really am, I'm just left wondering how I got of innocent…it doesn't make any sense…part of me wants to blame Jack and say this is some scheme…and a part of me…doesn't know whether that's too obvious."

"Can I ask you something?" Serena quizzed, "If you hadn't have been on trial, would you have gone after Blair?"

Chuck pondered it for a moment, a long, drawn out moment, and then he answered honestly.

"Mr Bass," his Valet called out from inside the Suite, "you have a visitor."

"Hello Chuck," the soft, sweet French tones called out, "it's been…a long time."

.

_Life is a series of tests and trials – for all of us, even Manhattan's elite, how we respond to those trials and how we fair in them is what will define our character, our personality and our development through life. At some points we succeed, at some points we fail – but there is one constant throughout our lives, wondering whether how we react to a test or how we behave in a trial is how we wish to be defined or recognized. A question of whether we might right the choice or the right decision at the right time, because once a choice is taken, you can only ever wonder if things had happened another way. Life is a series of constants, once committed to a choice, it becomes set in stone,_

_Xoxo, Gossip Girl_

.

Hope you like my Second _Je Suis _fic,

Reviews and responses welcome and appreciated,

I might write a third to the trilogy – not sure,

Acrobat

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